"Of course it hasn't expired. I ate the Christmas one a long time ago. This is the one to celebrate your coming home." Irene laughed. She'd originally felt Adrian had changed too much in the past year and always felt something was a little strange. But now she felt much more familiar.
Because his reactions were still the same and just as amusing.
Adrian rolled his eyes. He'd been so touched before, but next time he wouldn't believe it again.
There weren't many rules in the Blackwood family. The two chatted while eating, or rather it was just Irene asking about Adrian's current situation at school.
Naturally, Adrian tried to pick what he could say, all learning matters. He focused on his talent, active learning, and eagerness to answer every question in class. The professors of all subjects loved him. His academic performance was "satisfactory."
As for killing trolls on Halloween, fighting the Dark Lord at the end of the semester, and raising a fire dragon for a month, Adrian didn't mention a word, lest Irene worry and make him drop out to stay at home in the future.
Then where would he go to get grade points to improve his strength?
Irene listened proudly, especially when she heard Adrian's final grades were all Outstanding evaluations except for History of Magic.
This was also what Adrian had deliberately done, so Irene wouldn't make a fuss when he needed to cast spells.
But when Adrian talked about how Gryffindor had won the House Cup through his efforts, Irene's face suddenly became strange. The more she listened, the more she felt something was wrong. She suddenly asked.
"Aren't you in Slytherin House?"
"Of course not. Didn't you send a letter to Professor Dumbledore? He didn't tell you I was assigned to Gryffindor?" Adrian looked at Irene strangely. He hadn't mentioned this in his previous replies because he'd thought his mother should have known long ago.
"Gryffindor? You entered that arrogant and self-righteous Gryffindor House?" Irene's tone gradually rose, and thick anger appeared on her delicate features.
Adrian opened his mouth. He thought the Gryffindor House wasn't that bad, right?
Before he could speak, Irene squeezed the glass in her hand angrily. The sharp glass pierced the palm of her hand, and orange juice mixed with a little blood spilled on the table.
"Where did that damned Headmaster put you?" Irene asked, emphasizing each word.
Adrian didn't understand the source of Irene's anger at all, because there was no content related to it in his memory. But he still spoke under pressure.
"The house assignment should belong to the Sorting Hat."
However, Irene didn't believe it. She felt someone must have used their authority to force the Sorting Hat to change the decision. So she scolded Dumbledore in front of her child without hesitation, using almost every curse she knew on the old professor.
"I should have sent you to Durmstrang Institute!" Irene concluded angrily.
'Then why am I at Hogwarts now...' Adrian was trembling as he listened but didn't understand. After thinking about it, the reason Irene had sent him here seemed to be because tuition at Hogwarts was cheaper?
'Are you my real mother?'
Adrian was speechless.
However, complaints aside, Adrian knew in his heart things would never be as simple as he thought.
He remembered that in the Howler Irene had sent him earlier, it seemed she'd called Dumbledore something inappropriate, but he'd thought at the time it was just Irene being overly angry.
Now it seemed there should be other reasons.
"You have a bad relationship with Professor Dumbledore?" Adrian asked cautiously.
"Anyway, stay away from him at school..." Irene had already cleared up her emotions. She found a piece of gauze from the cabinet to deal with the wound and spoke to Adrian sternly.
Adrian nodded in agreement. He always stayed far away from Dumbledore at school anyway.
The dinner ended in a hurry. After eating, Irene entered the basement to work on her dark magical items, then had to set up defensive spells.
Knockturn Alley at night wasn't safe, not to mention it hadn't been peaceful recently.
Adrian returned to his small room.
The whole room was simple and tidy, with only one bed, one desk, and one wardrobe. But it was very clean and spotless.
It seemed Irene should use cleaning spells to tidy up from time to time. One year had passed in his memory, and this place was still the same as when he'd left.
After organizing the clothes in his luggage, Adrian subconsciously pulled out his wand and prepared to continue practicing magic. Then he remembered he couldn't cast spells now and finally sighed helplessly. This kind of life was really hard to get used to.
Especially now that he'd just escaped danger, Adrian desperately wanted to improve his strength.
'I can only ask Irene if there's a solution tomorrow.'
As for now?
Adrian felt he'd better not provoke her, although he also wanted to ask exactly what conflict his mother had with Dumbledore.
Flipping through books until midnight, Adrian faintly felt magical waves outside the window. When he moved to the window, he realized something he couldn't see was slowly rising. He couldn't see it with the naked eye, but Adrian's keen sense of magic power could detect its existence.
'Is this a protective ward? Or similar magic?'
Adrian was thinking when there was a wolf howling in the distance. Adrian suddenly raised his head to find a full moon hanging high in the sky.
'Full moon... Werewolf transformation...'
Adrian frowned. Although there were indeed some werewolves hiding in Knockturn Alley, this situation had rarely been encountered in his memory for a whole decade.
After all, there were many dangerous characters in Knockturn Alley. Those werewolves would consciously find a place to hide on the night of the full moon, instead of wandering the streets like this.
AWWWOOOOoooo!!!
The long wolf howl got closer. Adrian held the wand from his sleeve in his hand, complaining in his heart about the rule that young wizards couldn't cast spells outside school.
'Wait... It seems young wizards are allowed to cast spells to fight back when their lives are in danger.'
Adrian hesitated and saw a tall dark shadow rushing out of the alley under the moonlight. It was a half-wolf, half-human creature with brown-gray fur all over its body, long and narrow limbs, and dark red eyes. Its large mouth full of teeth kept breathing heavily.
This was the first time Adrian had really seen a werewolf. The creature didn't seem able to see up here and didn't mean to stay. It quickly dashed to the other side and broke into one of the houses.
Adrian was just about to mourn for the residents inside when, within a few seconds, the large werewolf was knocked out the same way it came in. It hit the red brick wall behind, wailing in pain. There were deep scars all over its body, down to the bone.