Sirius snorted coldly, "That scoundrel definitely harbors ill intentions. Vid, you have to be wary of those fellows; dark wizards are nothing good!"
He paused, thinking of Regulus, and corrected himself: "... most dark wizards are nothing good! Their goodwill is more frightening than their reckless behavior because those guys surely want to get more from you!"
Vid thought for a moment, concluding that these words weren't wrong, so he nodded.
"Be cautious and firm in your convictions," Lupin looked at Vid and said, "Whether it's goodwill or malice, as long as we know what's truly important, we won't be misled."
"I understand," Vid said earnestly. "Dumbledore says the same thing."
"Speaking of which, that Obscurial lured your poppets to the Witch Pure Party's territory—although it was to rescue you—Vid, do you know about this?" Sirius asked.
"Mabel?"
Vid recalled the girl who wanted to save her friends, and then thought of the personalities of the cube and cloak poppets, suddenly falling silent.
It seemed unlikely that Mabel could lure the poppets away, but the possibility that they went to abduct the Obscurial seemed absurdly high.
However, the magical world avoids talking about the thoughts and personalities of intelligent creatures like house-elves. If people knew poppets had their own ideas and even orchestrated a rescue operation...
At that time, perhaps the history of muggles hunting witches would repeat, turning into wizards hunting poppets.
"Mabel is sort of my friend; I helped her once on that island."
Vid subtly shifted the blame of the poppets' unauthorized actions onto Mabel, frowning slightly as if deep in thought, then said:
"She probably wanted to ask me for help, and somehow learned about me being kidnapped, so she led the poppets on a rescue mission."
Reflecting on the swirling black mist of the Obscurial flipping trucks, and then the girl's decision to leave the muggle soldiers to the Witch Pure Party, Sirius nodded, acknowledging that despite her young age, she showed decisiveness.
Like Vid, young as they were, yet you couldn't merely treat them as ordinary children.
But another question arose: "Where did she get the information? Even we weren't sure who the culprits were initially."
Meanwhile, Lupin inwardly thought: Hmm... is Vid hiding something? What's to hide here... apparently, he wasn't aware before...
Lupin thought it over and then turned to Sirius, saying: "It might be from us. Remember? When we followed the gift owl to Gray's apartment, we discussed the matter."
Sirius raised an eyebrow: "You're saying... the Obscurial was hiding in the house then?"
"Yes." Lupin nodded, sighing, "Thinking back, I actually saw that colorful cubic poppet, but I assumed it was a decoration, and didn't pay attention."
Sirius also recalled, and was left speechless.
The Obscurial, pursued by the magic world for so long, once stayed only a few meters away, yet neither of them noticed.
Though they'd heard of the Obscurus' power and danger, they hadn't witnessed what this creature could do... Maybe the Obscurus had some unique hiding technique?
"Actually, I want to go back to the apartment." Vid said, "To see if the poppets are back, if Mabel is around, and my Christmas presents are there too."
Upon hearing this, Lupin immediately understood his intent, saying: "We'll accompany you."
...
Vid didn't plan to leave home for long; after dinner, they immediately went out, having told his parents he'd be back before bed.
"Can't help it, they're too worried about me."
Once outside, Vid embarrassedly explained to the two.
"Understandable." Lupin said gently, "If I were your parents, I wouldn't be comfortable letting you spend the night out."
"Having good parents is an invaluable experience." Sirius said wistfully, "Fleamont and Uffemia—oh, Harry's grandparents—treated me like their own son and were wonderful to me."
The London streets at night were quite serene, the brick buildings silently standing on either side, with occasional faint lights from windows.
The three stood by the roadside, first observing the surroundings to ensure no hidden dangers and no muggles wandering nearby, before heading to the apartment.
Entering the room, under the moonlight from outside, it felt rather desolate. Vid turned on the light, instantly filling the room with bright light.
There were plenty of gift boxes piled on the bed, floor, and shelves; the cloak space remained, and the bell connecting the interior and exterior was napping with its head down.
"Stop sleeping."
Vid flicked the bell, startling it awake, and then it exclaimed happily, "Master, you're back!"
Then it shook, asking, "Huh? Where's the cube and the others?"
"That's what I want to ask you," Vid said. "How long have they been gone? Have they come back these past two days?"
"Uh..."
The bell fell into deep thought, unable to answer for a long time.
Helplessly, it was just a watch bell with no sense of time. Moreover, when no one was around, the bell spent most of its time asleep, conserving energy.
Vid noticed its lengthy "uh" without saying anything further, realizing his question was foolish. He entered the cloak space to look around, not finding their tracks, and decided to send the gifts inside with Levioso, to unwrap them slowly at home later.
Vid also put the magic books from his pocket onto a bookshelf, filling it entirely, placing them in different rooms from his previous books to avoid any negative interactions.
Upon exiting the cloak space, he saw Sirius and Lupin helping him pack—clothes were flying out of the wardrobe one by one and neatly folding before landing in the suitcase, other items lined up and hopped inside, taking their places.
Upon leaving, Fiona said he'd better pack all important things because she felt the house was unlucky and wouldn't live there again.
For wizards, moving is simple; no matter how much stuff, it can all fit into a small suitcase.
Sirius and Lupin also took a moment to visit the cloak space. Though they'd heard of it, seeing its vastness firsthand still surprised them.
"Remus is quite good at the Undetectable Extension Charm, but I've never seen him make a space this large!"
Sirius marveled, "I've only heard of Mr. Newt Scamander having a magical suitcase, like another world inside!"
"Professor Morry brought me to visit Mr. Scamander, and I indeed learned a lot from him."
Vid looked up at the magic text in the space and turned to smile, "But his space is to save endangered magical creatures, while mine is mainly for researching alchemy—less scenic and fun."
"Just don't let the Ministry of Magic know you have such a large space." Sirius joked, "Otherwise, it'll be tough for you to travel abroad."
Lupin gazed at the space pensively, not speaking.
Newt Scamander contributed greatly against Grindelwald and protected many magical creatures, a very esteemed person which Lupin also thought highly of.
But Scamander also established the werewolf registry in the Ministry of Magic, documenting all known werewolves in the United Kingdom, managed by the Magical Creatures Management and Control Department.
Perhaps Newt aimed to foster harmony between werewolves and humans, but the Ministry's implementation was always rough, simple, and arrogant.
Refusing to register werewolves are deemed dangerous elements needing elimination, while those who voluntarily register face surveillance and management, with many inconveniences and discrimination that Lupin had witnessed and personally experienced.
Vid transformed the cloak space into a pen case, tucked it into his pocket, and after one last look at the room, said, "I'll leave a note for Mabel and the others. When they get back, they'll know where to find me."
He pulled out a parchment, started writing an introduction, when Lupin suddenly asked, "Look at the sky, is something flying toward us?"
Vid looked up outside the window, seeing a small firelight rapidly approaching from the night sky.