"Alright."
Ian nodded, agreeing, and pulled out a little notebook.
"You're not seriously taking notes for this, are you?"
Lupin finally felt a trace of Ravenclaw energy from Ian.
However.
He had no idea.
[Today, clear skies. After Senior Lupin bailed mid-battle and then spent an hour spinning the story after I struggled to fix yet another ss, Senior Lupin is once again encouraging
to lie more often.]
What the little wizard was jotting down at that mont was actually his intended report to Albus Dumbledore. After all, it's not fair to let Lupin be the only one filing reports. Ian had already been keeping this report for several days now, and he'd insisted on only writing the truth.
"I need to go eat."
After making his notes, Ian didn't bother answering Lupin. He packed up his things and headed straight for the door of Lupin's dimly-lit room.
"Oh, by the way, you won't be going out tonight, will you?"
Ian stopped suddenly after opening the door.
He looked back and asked.
The question caught Lupin off guard for a mont.
"Of course not. I'll lock the door and stay quietly in my room, waiting for my transformation to pass. Don't worry, I've already put extra protection on the windows and doors."
Lupin showed Ian his array of defense asures.
The little wizard nodded slightly.
"Mm-hmm, that's good. With such thorough prep from you, you won't mind if I add a few more protective asures, right?" Ian asked in a slightly tea-scented, sly tone.
"Uh... Of course not."
Lupin hesitated just briefly before nodding his consent. He knew a bit about the little wizard's alchemy level—even being able to study under Nicolas Flal ant Ian was no slouch.
"Are you reinforcing my room's walls?" Seeing Ian pull out a bundle of thread and start sketching on the walls, Lupin imdiately wanted to help out with the safe house upgrade.
But.
He'd barely approached Ian before freezing up the mont he saw what Ian had produced. Sweat started beading on his forehead again.
"These things... are going to explode, right?" Lupin eyed Ian mounting small square boxes onto the wall, the pulsing red lights on them making his heart do flips.
As the original "Moon Face" on the Living Map, even a desperate werewolf's alchemy skill was above most ordinary wizards, so he instantly recognized the danger in those boxes.
"Of course. As long as they're installed in your room, if the wall structure takes serious damage, they'll explode with enough force to rip apart a full-grown giant."
Ian looked at Lupin in surprise—he honestly hadn't expected Lupin's eye for detail to be so sharp. Having said that, he continued installing the little boxes in Lupin's room.
"Uh..."
Sweat was now pouring off Lupin's forehead.
"I thought these were safety asures?"
He tactfully reminded the little wizard he didn't exactly need this kind of "protection."
But.
"They are safety asures—don't worry, these explosions are super safe. They only blast inward, never outward, so any innocent passersby outside won't get caught up in them."
The little wizard explained, bursting with confidence, leaving Lupin speechless. After a few monts of struggling for words, he finally figured out what Ian ant by "safety asures."
Turns out.
If you finish
off.
Everyone else is safe?
"..."
Left to stew in silent frustration, Lupin watched Ian finish setting up, then saw him wave goodbye before bolting for the dining hall.
"Click~"
Using magic to shut and lock the door, Lupin finally couldn't hold it together.
"Wu Orphanage... This damn place is definitely shady..." Staring at the walls covered in flickering little boxes, Lupin couldn't tell if he'd hallucinated it all. He thought of another wizard who had walked out from here, and he couldn't shake the feeling that the student had truly surpassed the master.
"Dumbledore is way too trusting if he's leaving a guy like this with !" For all the words he had, Lupin finally let out just one sigh.
He still wasn't thinking about bailing.
This is real loyalty to Albus Dumbledore.
...
The days slipped by. Ever since he got back from Knockturn Alley, Ian had thrown himself into study and research. The long holiday felt both free and ticulously planned.
Ti slid away day by day amid the scratch of pen on paper. A fulfilling life, each day full of little discoveries and progress, slowly washed away Ian's anxiety over the "cooldown" period of the Misty Illusion Realm.
The clearest sign was he no longer beat up the Black-robed Skeleton three tis a day, morning, noon, and night—now he only bothered it in the mornings and evenings.
Albus Dumbledore's suitcase was always just a suitcase for clothes and odds and ends—not nearly as spacious as Newt's—so the Black-robed Skeleton had nowhere to hide inside.
Whenever it got wailed on, the Dentor would hide in the corner, snickering away. This was probably the only joy Ian's Dentor ever got to experience.
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