Watching the Weasley twins begin thinking about the equipment, the room fell quiet. Tver did not disturb them. He continued clearing away the magic in the shop, while also adding a few protective spells for them.
After all, Diagon Alley was a conspicuous place, and the two of them would stand out there even more. It was not impossible that Death Eaters might attack the shop in retaliation.
This was also a new problem the hunting plan needed to consider.
Voldemort had indeed gone into hiding, and the Death Eaters and Dementors under him had indeed scattered, but that did not mean he had taken no countermeasures at all.
Of course, those scattered Death Eaters and Dementors were themselves the problem he had left for Tver.
But as if in retaliation against the hunting plan, these dispersed Death Eaters had begun attacking muggles in a planned manner.
In the past month alone, there had been nearly a hundred attacks with evidence linking them to Death Eaters.
Especially after realizing that muggle police were helping the Aurors investigate their movements, the Death Eaters had even begun retaliating against muggles in police uniforms.
So even though Tver had already ordered the police under him not to wear uniforms, panic was still inevitably spreading among the muggle employees in the Office.
Magical methods were not something they could face with technology.
In fact, during the last Wizarding War, the Death Eaters and Giants had caused plenty of harm to muggles too.
It was just that no one had known magic was responsible. They had assumed it was an ordinary collapse or some similar accident, and apart from criticizing the government, they had not felt afraid.
Sometimes, ignorance brought fearlessness instead.
Fortunately, the Weasley twins could effectively ease that panic.
Although equipment designed to counter magic would not give them an absolute advantage against Death Eaters, it could still relieve the helplessness of having no way to fight back against magic at all.
As police officers and soldiers, they were not truly afraid of sacrifice, especially when facing villains.
They were only unwilling to stand powerless in front of those villains.
"Professor?" George asked tentatively in a low voice as he looked at Tver, who had drifted into thought.
They were clearly the ones who needed to figure out how to develop combat equipment, so why did it feel as though the professor was thinking even more than they were?
"Sorry." Tver waved his wand and added the final protective spell for them. "I've taken care of the traps here. From now on, this place belongs to you Weasley brothers."
The words immediately made the two of them beam.
Ever since the professor had helped them sell some of their more mature products, they had dreamed of earning enough money to buy a shop of their own.
But now, before they had even saved enough, the professor had generously given them one.
"By the way, the cost of the shop will be deducted from the equipment you deliver in the future."
"…"
"What, can't bear to part with this small amount of money?" Tver thought they were feeling pained over it. After all, shop prices were not low now.
"Don't worry. As long as the products you develop are good enough, the number purchased will absolutely be enough to flood the entire wizarding world."
"…"
George opened his mouth with a complicated expression, but Fred accurately clamped a hand over it.
"We just wanted to ask you, Professor. Are there any tricks to making the Shield Charm badges? If we can learn from them, it would speed up our development a lot!"
He looked at George, who had nearly been smothered by his hand, and quickly loosened his grip a little. "Right, George?"
George nodded helplessly. Only then did Tver realize.
"That was my oversight. Actually, you're quite familiar with them. The Dervish & Banges brothers in Hogsmeade have been supplying me with the Shield Charm badges all along."
"If you need anything, you can ask them at any time. I don't think they'll refuse."
"But Professor," George said cautiously after escaping from Fred's hand, "we've already graduated, and we have a shop now. We'll definitely be developing more and more products."
"So… should we still buy things from that place like before?"
At that question, even Fred looked at the professor with a complicated expression.
That place was actually where they purchased raw materials from muggle factories. Thanks to the low costs, they had made a great deal of money over the past year or so.
If they broke away from that model, they certainly would not lose money, but even without calculating it, they knew the sharp drop in profit would be enough to hurt for an entire year.
Looking at their expressions, Tver could not help chuckling softly.
In the past, they would never have dared to suggest buying materials from the muggle world in such an encouraging tone.
It seemed that the experiences of the past year or so had indeed changed their thinking in some ways.
But those changes were still not enough to satisfy him now.
"Don't worry. I'll give you the contact information of a muggle rich man. From now on, if you need anything, you can contact him directly." Tver casually took out a small strip of parchment and used magic to leave a string of numbers on it.
"Is this a phone number?" George could not help asking curiously, before his surprise quickly deepened. "You want us to talk to muggles ourselves?!"
"Is there a problem?" Tver asked with the same curiosity. "From now on, this is your business. Surely I can't fight Voldemort on one side while helping you find factories on the other, can I?"
"Er…"
That did make sense, but George and Fred still felt something was not quite right.
"There's no harm in learning how muggles communicate. After all, once you graduate, there will be many things you need to think through yourselves…"
Tver casually stuffed the note into George's hand, then placed his hands on their shoulders and looked at them encouragingly.
"If you don't want to develop combat equipment, and you don't want to have anything to do with muggles, I won't mind."
"But in the same way, you'll need to think for yourselves about whether that will lead to the result you want."
Fred, who was the more delicate-minded of the two, seemed to realize something and slowly raised his head.
"Does that include your dissatisfaction?"
Hearing the question, Tver immediately grinned.
"Of course not. No matter what choice you make, you'll always be my students."
Those words were sincere. Even if it meant losing two extremely important helpers, he did not want to damage his relationship with the Weasley twins because of it.
"There's no need to rush your answer. As long as you need me, I'll always be willing to be your teacher."
Tver gave the two silent boys one last firm pat, then walked out of the house with a smile. After he closed the door, only the two of them remained in the darkness and silence.
After a while, or perhaps after what felt like a long time, a small sound finally rose inside the house.
"The adult world is such a pain, Fred." George clenched his hands tightly, crushing the note into a ball.
"We have to move forward eventually, George."
With a complicated expression, Fred squeezed George's hand, the one holding the note, as if he had come to understand everything the professor had been doing all along.
"Whether it's us, or the wizarding world…"