"There's nothing more we can do on this matter until whoever replaces Attorney Delin shows up. Head back for now."
"Alright~"
After parting ways with Stephen, Bernadette returned to Caesar Restaurant. She had barely settled into her seat when her Invisible Servant came fluttering back, carrying a letter from Jadleya.
In the letter, Jadleya said she knew very little about Attorney Delin's "little circle." She had joined the Moses Ascetic Order as a spy, and her dealings were almost exclusively with those who worshipped the Hidden Sage most devoutly — the faction represented by the "Ten Pillars." That said, she would begin looking into it as soon as possible.
As for any recent movements from both the Moses Ascetic Order and the Hidden Sage, nothing unusual stood out on the Order's end — but the Hidden Sage had noticeably increased the frequency with which "He" was imparting knowledge. What had changed, however, was the manner of delivery. In the past, "He" would flood His targets indiscriminately with vast amounts of knowledge — useful, useless, and dangerous alike, with no regard for whether the recipient could handle it. But over the past month or two, while the frequency had gone up, the amount imparted each time had shrunk considerably. The impression it gave Jadleya was that "He" seemed to be dispensing knowledge with a specific purpose in mind.
After reading the letter, Bernadette sank into thought. The reason the Hidden Sage was counted among the evil gods was precisely because "He" was, for the most part, chaotic and unhinged — yet Jadleya's description carried the faint suggestion of something unsettling: this evil god appeared to be thinking clearly.
A raving evil god was one thing. A rational evil god was something else entirely.
Because when that happened, it usually meant "He" was building up to something big.
Bernadette shook her head a moment later. "Why am I even worrying about this?"
She promptly wrote a letter, had her Invisible Servant deliver it to Bonov, and laid out every piece of intelligence she currently had. If the Hidden Sage truly had something major brewing, she'd leave that headache to Bonov and whoever stood behind him.
Less than ten minutes later, the Invisible Servant came huffing and puffing back, mopping at non-existent sweat with a thoroughly exhausted air, letting out little squeaking chirps.
Bernadette tossed it a small fragment of a spiritual material, which it swallowed in one gulp. She then opened the letter — expecting a reply from Bonov, but instead found an entirely unfamiliar hand: "Help me! Someone's trying to kill me!"
She looked at the Invisible Servant. "Whose letter is this?"
"Ji ji~"
It gestured frantically with all four limbs: a short person.
Short?
Oh — that man had mentioned her at some point. Hugh Dilcha. The girl who'd bought Father's diary a while back.
"Right, let's go take a look."
She took half a step forward, then stopped short as something occurred to her. "Oh — I need to change my appearance first."
The world of Harry Potter.
After his morning classes, Vincent Moriarty made his way to Hogsmeade and found the new bookshop Bernadette had mentioned. A wooden sign hung by the front door reading "Not yet open", and the door itself was firmly shut.
Vincent stepped up and knocked. From inside came a clear, bright voice: "We're not open yet~"
He hadn't seen her in years, but he still recognised the voice. It was Patricia.
"It's me, Patricia."
"Ah?!"
A startled cry rang out, followed immediately by a rapid patter of footsteps rushing toward the door. With a click, it swung open. "Is it really you, Vincent?!"
Standing in the doorway was a girl with long golden hair and grey-white eyes. She wore a plain white dress and held a cloth in one hand, her fair little face smudged with dust — like a kitten that had rolled in the ashes.
Vincent quickly steadied her. "It's me, it's me."
A brilliant smile spread across the girl's face at once. "Long time no see, Vincent~"
"Long time no see."
She strained to open her eyes wide, as though trying to see him more clearly through those grey-white irises.
"What brings you back here?"
Henry had heard the commotion and came out after her. Catching sight of the cloth still in Patricia's hand, he sighed. "Patricia — didn't I tell you to rest?"
The girl stuck out her tongue. "It's so boring just sitting around all day~"
Vincent ruffled her hair and looked at Henry. "Care to explain?"
"Explain what?"
"Why you've traded dark wizardry for running a bookshop."
Henry gave a cold snort. "Mind your own business."
"I'm not prying into yours. I just want to know what's going on with Patricia. Didn't her family take her away?"
Patricia jumped in quickly. "Henry came to help look after me."
Vincent turned to her. "Patricia, why are you here? I thought you'd left England altogether."
"Because I'm old enough to start school now! But Durmstrang wouldn't take me, and I can't speak French, so Beauxbatons was out of the question too — Hogwarts was my only option." She let out a small sigh. "I waited the whole summer and no owl ever came. I thought maybe the distance was the problem, so I moved closer. And sometimes... I do wonder if Hogwarts just doesn't want a blind girl."
Vincent was taken aback. "I'm sure Hogwarts would never turn you away because of your eyes."
"Really? That's wonderful!"
Everyone who attended Hogwarts knew how the school selected its young witches and wizards: through the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admittance. When a child within Britain first displayed a magical gift, the Quill would fly from its inkwell and inscribe the child's name in the Book. At age eleven, the Headmaster would send out the letter of acceptance, welcoming the young witch or wizard to Hogwarts to formally study magic.
So by rights, the moment Patricia — who had never attended a wizarding school — set foot in Britain, her name ought to have appeared in the Book of Admittance. Unless, of course, she was a Squib.
"Tell you what — I'll head back shortly and ask the Headmaster for you."
Patricia smiled sweetly. "That would be lovely, thank you, Vincent."
Vincent reached out and took hold of her small hand. "We haven't seen each other in ages. Fancy a walk around the village?"
"I'd love that!"
She glanced back over her shoulder in Henry's direction. "Henry, do you mind watching the shop?"
Vincent led her out of the bookshop and headed toward Honeydukes. "Did your family come with you?"
"In a manner of speaking."
Patricia hesitated. "Lady Rozier only turns up every few days. No one ever knows what she's busy with."
"Lady Rozier?"
"I've been living with her and a few other elders these past two years — all friends or seniors of my mother and father."
"And how have you been?"
The girl smiled. "Quite well, actually~ They all look after me. Every once in a while they'd take me somewhere to see an old gentleman who said he was my grandfather."
"He'd teach me magic. I can cast quite a lot of spells now!" She paused for a moment. "He also tries to teach me other things, but I can't make head or tail of them."
"Such as?"
"Hmm." Patricia tilted her head upward, murmuring to herself. "I never really understood it, honestly. He says a great deal and yet somehow says nothing at all. Sometimes I wonder if he might be losing his mind. But Lady Rozier and the others all hold him in the highest respect."
Vincent nodded. "And the bookshop — how did that happen?"
"Oh! Before Lady Rozier bought the building, the previous owner had been planning to turn it into a bookshop. She thought it seemed like a waste to just throw out the books, and the idea of running a shop sounded fun, so she inherited the whole thing~"
She was clearly delighted by this. "And before we'd even opened, here you are on our doorstep, Vincent."
By now they had stepped inside Honeydukes.
"Oh~ I can smell something sweet and lovely."
"We're at the sweet shop. You used to love sweets — I'll buy you a bit of everything."
Patricia let out a soft "Ah", glanced around, and lowered her voice: "But they don't usually let me have sweets."
"Why? Afraid of tooth decay?"
"No." She shook her head. "Mr. Grindelwald told me that only someone who has never tasted the sweetness of life craves the sweetness of food. And a person who wallows in sweetness will never amount to much."
Blimey. Going to those lengths just to stop a little girl from eating sweets — this Grindelwald fellow...
Grindelwald?
Vincent froze. He gently tugged Patricia's hand. "Who did you just say? Grindelwald?"
To be continued…
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