A week later the board is ready for Karen to consult on uninvolved merpeople.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

There are, it happens, no mature merpeople in the lake they're all kids.

The board is so confused!

Gosh he bets. 

(He and Minor brewed eighty gallons of De-Ageing Potion and poured them in the lake.)

The board yanks lots of juvenile merpeople out of the lake and tells the Dwimmers that, uh, maybe the adult ones got wind and all fled?

...gosh golly.

The Dwimmers can of course try to have them tracked down but the Hogwarts board is not especially equipped to help with that. The juvenile merfolk get all put back.

Karen manages to convince her parents to drop it in the face of this obstacle.

Minor is pleased to see Karen's recovered!

"It still twinges if I move it wrong but yeah pretty much."

"Hopefully it doesn't come up again. I'm going to go down and talk with them so they know more about what's going on at Hogwarts and things."

"Be careful."

"Of course."

Hug.

Hug.

Miranda wonders who saved the merfolk.

Hard to say, really.

Maybe she should ask Timothy.

"Hard to say!"

"Funny, that's what Minor said."

"Do you think we coordinated in advance on a banal non-comment? I suppose you could check by asking other brothers of ours."

"Or you could just tell me."

"What if I'd find it convenient someday to testify that I had no part in it and no idea how it happened? Or, since I can't testify, what if it'd be convenient for other people who can to testify to that?"

"I'm not one of those people."