"One look at you and I can tell you didn't eat lunch in the Great Hall."
Kasen stood up and wiped his hands on Clay's head. "What is it?"
Without changing expression, Clay silently cleaned his hair with a wandless spell, then pulled a small cloth pouch from his pocket.
"Good news, of course. I've more or less finished writing that book. All that's left is for you to sign your name, Professor."
Clay pulled the mouth of the pouch wide open, then tugged out one corner of a book.
"Professor, grab hold of it."
"Mm, no problem."
Kasen gripped the corner of the book with both hands. Clay gave a slight pull from the other side, and with a pop, the book was yanked out of the pouch.
"Wow. That pouch of yours has pretty good airtightness," Kasen praised.
"Of course. The inside of this pouch is kept in a relative vacuum and below freezing... I made it last year to store late-night snacks. The weather at Hogwarts was hot and humid around that time, so food spoiled really quickly."
The two chatted idly as they walked. Before long, they entered the castle and arrived outside Kasen's office.
"Do you want to walk in, or teleport in with me?" Kasen asked.
"The latter."
The next instant, the two of them were already beside the desk.
Kasen took out a quill and wrote his name in the author section on the cover.
Then he handed the quill to Clay. "You're the editor."
Clay took the quill somewhat hesitantly.
"Actually, I don't really want to sign my name. The wizarding world isn't safe right now, and neither is the Muggle world by extension. If I attract too much attention, people like You-Know-Who might notice me."
"If you have no reputation at all, killing you only takes one Killing Curse. But if you become well known, killing you becomes much more troublesome. They might not care about the feelings of ordinary lower-class wizards, but they still have to avoid making talented wizards feel threatened by what happens to one of their own," Kasen explained.
"But if they truly want to kill me, it would still be as easy as crushing an ant. They would only need to find some grand and righteous-sounding excuse," Clay said with a faint sigh.
"Before you sign your name, they wouldn't even need an excuse. Besides, I think Voldemort has probably already heard your name. A wizard capable of using spatial magic even under Ender restrictions and Hogwarts' anti-Apparition protections... and on top of that, the boyfriend of a pure-blood witch."
"As far as I know, a pure-blood witch getting together with a Muggle-born wizard or even a Muggle might be enough to give Voldemort PTSD," Kasen said, raising an eyebrow.
"When you put it that way, I really am in quite a dangerous position. But if that day ever comes, I should at least be able to run."
Clay signed his full name on the cover.
"If there's nothing else, could you help me call Ron and Neville over? The sixth-years from Gryffindor."
Clay nodded. "No problem."
Once again, Kasen was the only person left in the office.
He looked at the timetable and, for some reason, that old bastard Dumbledore had ultimately moved his classes forward anyway.
Old people. No sense of honour!
Two weeks later...
Inside the study of a luxurious pure-blood manor, Voldemort was reading Kasen's newly published Complete Works of Kasen with great interest.
"You pitiful fools. Not a single one of you subscribed to an alchemy journal, and now, with your current identities, purchasing one has already become extremely difficult," Voldemort said as he turned a page.
"As long as the servants know alchemy, isn't that enough?" Bella muttered.
The thought that Voldemort had called her a fool merely because she had failed to buy a magazine connected to the enemy left her feeling somewhat aggrieved.
In short...
She felt sour about it.
Why couldn't Master Voldemort insult me separately?
"At the time, all of you were in Azkaban awaiting my return, so I do not blame you. But Bella, you should not make strange noises," Voldemort said faintly.
"I'm very sorry, Master!"
Bella immediately dropped to her knees.
Inside, however, she was thinking something entirely different.
She did not even get her own share of the scolding!
Why should those traitors who had never gone to Azkaban be allowed to listen to Voldemort's profound teachings instead?
"If you had collected all of Professor Kasen's alchemical methods for me as early as possible, how could I possibly have suffered such a great loss at his hands?"
"You enjoy privileged and wealthy lives, yet treat the knowledge of the world's true number-one master of alchemy as worthless rubbish. I am afraid that if I were not here to lead you, perhaps within ten or twenty years, your families would collapse completely... trampled beneath the feet of those Mudbloods who actually bothered to learn."
"They would build even grander palaces upon the ruins of your manors."
"And what of you by then? Perhaps you would clutch some valuable heirloom passed down from your ancestors and rush straight into a pawnshop, all so that the final moments of your lives could still be spent drowning in drunken pleasure."
Voldemort placed an exquisite silver bookmark between the pages and carefully set the book neatly on the desk.
Then he stood and began pacing through the spacious study.
Many people were standing inside.
Bella, for example.
Barty Crouch Jr., the man who had once made Kasen cry out, I tried so hard, so why are you still alive?
And there was also a middle-aged wizard whose temples were beginning to turn grey.
Voldemort slowly wandered over to the man and said quietly, "It seems you did not take what I said to heart."
The wizard instantly began sweating so heavily that it was as though a water pipe had been hidden inside his hair.
Even so, he kept staring straight ahead.
Then, inevitably, his eyes met Voldemort's eerie serpentine gaze.
In an instant, he felt as though he had been completely seen through.
Legilimency.
The word exploded inside the wizard's mind.
"Let me guess what you are thinking," Voldemort said faintly.
"You disdain me. You believe I cannot lead pure-bloods towards genuine progress. You believe I will only lead pure-bloods towards destruction."
"You think everything I just said was bullshit. You believe that pure-blood families will only be destroyed if they continue down this radical path. You even rather like the Mudblood boyfriend your daughter has found for herself?"
Voldemort spoke slowly.
"How dare he be so ungrateful, Master. Allow me to..."
Bella instinctively drew her wand, preparing to give the wizard an Avada Kedavra, but Voldemort stopped her with a cold snort.
"How could you be so rude to our landlord?" Voldemort asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I apologise, Dark Lord," the wizard said quietly.
"There is no need to apologise to me. I believe the person who truly deserves your apology is your daughter, because you failed to stop her immediately when she found herself a Mudblood boyfriend."
"So now... why don't you write her a letter from home?"
...
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