In the blink of an eye, half the holidays had passed...
Professor McGonagall, who had returned to Hogwarts halfway through the break to work overtime, had already sent out the students' report cards and all the supplies needed for the new school year by owl.
The two wizarding families reached an unspoken agreement and handed the task of taking the children to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies to Kasenhis, Sirius, Lupin, and Tonks, who had taken leave. Three men and one woman.
After all, young people were like bricks. You put them wherever they were needed.
So the next day, instead of using the Floo Network, everyone travelled directly to Diagon Alley via Kasenhis' Ender Teleport.
Since Hermione was abroad with her parents, the task of buying her school supplies naturally fell to Ron.
Mr and Mrs Weasley also silently reached into each other's Galleon pouches, handed the money to Ron, and reminded him to buy Hermione a little gift while he was at it.
Thus, Kasenhis, Sirius, Lupin, and Tonks, three men and one woman, each looked after one of the younger group consisting of Harry, Ron, Neville, and Ginny, another three boys and one girl. Everything was wonderfully harmonious.
The new school year wasn't like the first few years after Kasenhis had arrived at Hogwarts, when the professors had been nothing but absurd disasters. So this year's school supplies were no different from before. They simply needed to update the textbooks.
As for Ginny...
She didn't even need new textbooks.
Wisely, she chose not to buy new ones at all and instead specifically requested Hermione's old set.
Hermione: "I could hear her算盘 all the way from France."
But there was nothing to be done. The two of them were going to be family sooner or later, and for Hermione, it was hardly any trouble at all. In fact, they had already agreed on it before the school holidays had even begun.
So this trip to Flourish and Blotts didn't require Ginny to grind through the dungeon.
She had come to Diagon Alley today purely to have fun.
The other three were another story. Kasenhis swiftly picked out a full set of textbooks for each of them, handed the bundles over to the three young wizards, ignored the Galleons all three of them simultaneously pulled out, and walked straight to the checkout himself.
The three children had expected this. After all, if you were out with the Alchemy professor and still had to pay for your own books, wouldn't that be an insult to Professor Kasenhis?
So they all quietly put their Galleons away.
Unable to suppress his anxiety any longer, Harry immediately tore open the wrapping on his new books, found the Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook, and began skimming through it according to the table of contents.
"Harry... did you take the wrong medicine?" Ron asked, bewildered by Harry's behaviour.
"I'd advise you two to have a look as well. Snape's our Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year. If we make even the tiniest mistake, I can already imagine what that's going to be like," Harry warned.
Hearing the children talking, Sirius walked over. He didn't interrupt Harry and the others, but instead stood beside Kasenhis.
"So Snape's become the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Is he working two jobs now, or did Hogwarts find a new Potions professor?"
"A new Potions professor," Kasenhis replied. "His name is... Slughorn. You all know him, don't you? He should have taught you."
Sirius' mouth twitched at the mention of the name.
"Oh, I know that name well enough. Back then, he had rather mixed feelings about me."
"Mixed feelings? How so?" Kasenhis asked curiously.
"On one hand, there was my family background. As the eldest son of the Black family, I was quite attractive in his eyes. On the other hand, my dreadful Potions grades kept him from pinching his nose and inviting me into the Slug Club. Of course, even if he had invited me, I might not have accepted. Snape was in it, after all, and Slughorn was the Head of Slytherin. I cared quite a bit about that sort of thing."
"So just how terrible were your Potions grades?" Kasenhis asked, giving him a deadpan look.
"They weren't actually that bad. Getting an Acceptable, and the occasional Exceeds Expectations, was easy enough. But Snape's talent for Potions was simply absurd back then. When it came to Potions, he was head and shoulders above everyone else at Hogwarts."
"So, to avoid being looked down upon by him whenever I did badly in Potions, I deliberately threw my Potions exams. That way I could convince myself that it wasn't because I was worse than him. I just couldn't be bothered to study such a boring subject. You know, the kind of pointless pride young people have."
Sirius scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Kasenhis nodded.
"I get it, I get it. So what about your Potions skills now?"
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"I only slacked off during the exams. I never slacked off while actually learning."
"You little rascal."
Laughing, Kasenhis repeatedly poked Sirius with a finger.
Meanwhile, the three young wizards had more or less finished skimming through their new Defence Against the Dark Arts textbooks. They found that they could already cast most of the spells inside, and the more advanced techniques didn't seem particularly difficult either.
Harry let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. Next term probably won't be too miserable."
Neville nodded as well.
"Let's hope so."
After finishing, they put the textbooks back into their bags, retied the cords around them, picked them up, and left.
For some reason, though, Harry's bag of books felt just a little lighter than it should have.
After leaving Flourish and Blotts, the group found Ginny and Tonks eating ice cream by the roadside. Once all eight of them had reunited, they headed straight for the joke shop opened by the Weasley twins.
After entering, Kasenhis found a spot where he wouldn't be in anyone's way and looked around.
Nearly every inch of the walls was covered with all sorts of amusing gadgets. Surrounding the floating rune matrix in the centre, where there had originally been nothing but a circular glass barrier, was now a round display shelf, enclosing the rune matrix so thoroughly that only its pointed tip remained visible.
The rest of the shop, however, was fairly conventional. In essence, it looked much like any other shop.
That, too, was the fate of wildly imaginative designs. The moment they interacted with reality, reality's gravity would yank them back down to earth and give them a thorough beating.
What a tragic sight.
That said, Kasenhis didn't have the sort of emotional attachment that artists often poured into their creations.
He enjoyed decorating because he loved the act of creating itself. If he were to become upset, angry, or lose his composure simply because his work wasn't treated well, then such behaviour had no place in this world.
It belonged in the world next door of Detective Conan.
The lunatics over there could get so deranged that even Voldemort wouldn't understand them.
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