The headmaster was peering down at him as he waited for his answer.
"You... you know?" Magnus almost whispered in uncertainty. Could Hagrid have gone to Dumbledore already without telling them? But even as he thought that, he knew he hadn't. He just couldn't see him doing that, especially since it would most likely mean parting ways with his Pokémon...
"Yes," the headmaster answered, still gazing at him. "I like to think I know most things happening around my school... Now I suppose that was a yes?"
Magnus tried to nod but only managed to send another ripple of pain across his head. Dumbledore, however, seemed to get the point.
"In that case, we should get on with your version of events. I am afraid we hardly have a lot of time, so I would appreciate it if I didn't have to remind you to speak only the truth."
At this, Magnus did not know what to say. He did not care about some of his secrets, especially because his expulsion was already sealed, and the headmaster seemed to know a lot anyway. There was, however, a point even he couldn't go beyond. He decided he would have to make use of 'selective amnesia' .
"Well..." he forced his voice just above a whisper, his eyes staring anywhere except at the person he was talking to. "I have been interested in Pokémon and I have been watching them since childhood."
That was true; it just depended on what 'watching' meant to the headmaster. To Magnus, he was referring to actual anime and digital stuff, but the headmaster would understand it differently. Maybe he would think he had been observing them. Anyhow, he did not interrupt, and so Magnus went on.
"I began to notice that under some circumstances, Pokémon of the same type could still change and become different from each other both physically and in terms of abilities..."
He could see the headmaster's eyes were glinting with curiosity behind the glasses, but still, he didn't stop him. The visible interest, however, motivated him to share more.
"I had no access to magical books at that time... and so I began to develop my own system for identifying and classifying them based on several traits."
"And your parents knew about this?" From the way he asked, Magnus knew the headmaster had a hunch. He just wanted his confirmation.
"I was living on the London streets, sir?". Again, he purposely neglected telling the man that it was a future London he had lived in.
It was impossible to read whatever was going through the headmaster's mind, but Magnus liked to think he saw a kind of understanding on his face... maybe a glint of sympathy, but it was anyone's guess, so he went on.
"I also began to discover that all Pokémon can learn their own type of magical abilities..."
At this, Dumbledore interrupted him.
"Learn? Magic is supposed to be inborn. You can study and improve it, but you can't instill it where it does not exist ."
He realized that the headmaster had not contradicted him, nor had he been surprised by his conclusions about Pokémon possessing their own magic. He had just voiced the common myth.
Of course, Magnus knew the nature of magic in the Wizarding World: one couldn't acquire magic through studying. That was why there were squibs in the first place. Pokémon, however, did not follow such principles, and he could see the headmaster's curiosity was now plainly evident.
Could he too have been doing his own research on Pokémon? After all, in canon, he had been among the scholars who contributed to many books written in the magical world.
"It's different for Pokémon, sir," Magnus said before realizing he sounded too confident. "At least it is for the ones I've studied so far... some are born as a normal type, but others already have one of the many types that influence their abilities."
"Normal type? I suppose your system does not classify them based on the creatures they resemble?"
"No, sir. That is what the Ministry does, but that method can not be fully efficient, nor can it work for every Pokémon. That is, in fact, why I realized that so far, I hadn't seen the fairy types, ghost types, grass types, among many others. Simply because the Ministry seemed to think Pokémon were only limited to animal-like creatures."
"I developed 18 types so far, and although I did not have a large pool to study from, I am certain every known Pokémon can fit in one of these groups."
There were 18 types in the Pokémon universe; the only lie here was saying he had developed it. But it hardly did any harm. It was definitely better than telling the man that the classification system had been developed in a world where he and everything else here were nothing but fragments of someone's imagination.
His declaration had, however, come out so bold that even the headmaster seemed to take it with a grain of salt.
"That is a bold statement. The Ministry has been studying them for almost a hundred years," Dumbledore said as he pushed back his moon glasses. "Still, they hardly think they can classify nor identify all of them, as I'm sure you saw from Ms. Granger's Pokémon."
The mention of the Pichu sent another jolt of fear through him, and his eyes quickly fell on those hidden behind the glasses before they dropped again. Could the headmaster also know about the Pichu? I mean, if he had known about the Deino despite the best efforts from Hagrid to conceal it, it only made sense that Hermione's Pichu, which had been subject to a lot of scrutiny from the castle, wasn't lost on him.
He, however, forced himself to act undisturbed.
"I don't mean to sound arrogant, sir, but the Ministry has been studying Pokémon all wrong." At this, Dumbledore actually raised an eyebrow, and for the first time, Magnus saw what could have been a smile forming, but it disappeared just as quickly. He hastened to clarify "I mean, they've got some stuff right, but..." Here, he faltered, not knowing what exact words to use to describe the laxity on the Ministry's part. A hundred years was not enough to study and record everything related to Pokémon, but still, for that period of time, the Ministry's efforts were almost negligible, especially considering that they had magic.
The headmaster seemed to agree with him on that bit.
"You are right," he said, and Magnus could sense that Dumbledore also had some misgivings about the Ministry's efforts. "I suppose you've already heard this from your History of Magic and Pokémon classes. Most scholars agree that Pokémon may have existed almost as long as magic itself. They were discovered a while back, but due to our tumultuous politics, they only began taking them seriously less than a hundred years ago. And even after that, not enough resources or manpower seemed to go into it."
It was true.Professor Binns' class was one of the most boring lessons, as they all just had to sit and listen to the ghost reading in his monotonous voice. But for Magnus, History of Magic and Pokémon had been one of the lessons he paid more attention to.
It seems there had been a serious conflict, as the magical community split into two factions: those supporting the integration of Pokémon and all magical creatures into the magical community and those who detested it. The latter claimed that magical creatures could steal or corrupt human magic. There was no proof behind this, but such is hardly needed when a substantial part of magic users sides with it.
The then minister, being a typical politician, chose popularity over reason. They banned interactions or direct integration with non-domesticated animals of any sort. It wasn't until late in the 1800s that a bold enough minister lifted the ban and paved the way for the integration of these creatures into the magical world.
"I'm afraid we don't have much time left," Dumbledore said, sounding honestly disappointed by the limited time. "Now, I want you to explain what happened today, including how on earth Ms. Granger's Pichu zapped the air out of her Head of House?"