Early that morning, Kael came downstairs for breakfast, just like always.
Chris was the only one in the living room.
In fact, ever since the award ceremony, Diana hadn't come home once.
Kael had asked Chris about it, but he didn't know what was going on either; he only knew that the Department of Mysteries had a really important mission this time.
Just two days ago, the entire ninth floor of the Ministry of Magic, where the Department of Mysteries was, was completely sealed off. The elevator wouldn't go up, and even the memo paper airplanes delivering messages were all blocked outside.
Not only that, even Minister Cornelius Fudge couldn't get in.
Because of this, the minister had a major tantrum.
But forget about throwing tantrums—even if he tried bashing the elevator with his head, the ninth floor just wasn't going to open.
Unlike the other departments of the Ministry of Magic, the Department of Mysteries had a lot of independence and wasn't actually under the authority of the Minister of Magic.
After all, the Department of Mysteries existed long before the Ministry of Magic was established. Strictly speaking, the two are just in a partnership.
Most of the time, if nothing's happening, the Unspeakables might still give Fudge some respect.
But if there's something special going on, it's a whole different story.
Sometimes, in their eyes, this so-called Minister Fudge wasn't even as important as a single Prophecy Crystal Ball.
Who knows if this Department of Mysteries mission has anything to do with Voldemort.
Kael was a bit curious... Too bad Diana would never tell him anything about the Department of Mysteries.
...
"It's already your second week of vacation, right?"
At the table, Chris handed Kael a plate of bacon, asking a bit nervously, "You're sure that letter really is from Mr. Nicolas Flamel?"
"Dad, I've already said this a ton of times."
Kael put down his bread with exasperation. "Mr. McPhail gave me the letter, and Headmaster Dumbledore also confirmed it. There's no way they'd joke about something like this."
"I know... but it's Nicolas Flamel!" Chris still couldn't believe it.
As a legendary wizard who's lived across six centuries, Nicolas Flamel is just too famous—you could say wherever there are wizards, you'll find his legend.
Tons of people would give anything to meet him, and now Kael was actually invited to visit.
Ever since he'd heard the news, Chris just kept feeling like he was dreaming.
Kael bit into his bread, looking a bit helpless. Chris had been like this for days now—he was getting used to it.
It's just an invitation to visit! Is it really so shocking? I mean, Kael was the youngest ever recipient of the Merlin Order Medal—don't act like this is nothing!
...
"Bang... bang bang!"
Just then, there was a sudden knock at the door.
"Is that the person coming to pick you up?" Chris asked.
"Probably not." Kael shook his head, answering calmly.
It might be the agreed-upon day, but it was still way too early—not even eight o'clock yet... And that knock, Kael was very familiar with; last year at this time it was nearly a daily thing.
Kael got up and opened the door.
Next second, two identical faces appeared at the door.
"Kael, thank God you're still home."
George said with relief, "We remembered you're leaving today."
Of course—it was Fred and George.
Kael was totally unsurprised; he just calmly stepped aside and said, "Come in and talk."
Fred peeked past Kael into the house, then shook his head seriously. "No thanks, you must be busy today. We won't take up your time."
"We're just here to borrow your owl."
"Borrow the owl?" Kael was a little surprised.
He'd figured Fred and George were here like last year to borrow the attic for making their Skiving Snackbox stuff.
Besides, the Weasley family's owl, even though it's old, had been doing pretty well with Chris's care these last few years. Sending a letter shouldn't be a problem, right?
"Yeah."
Fred couldn't help grinning. "The Skiving Snackbox line is super popular—we're still getting tons of orders even during the holidays..."
"We need to send the stuff out to them."
George pulled out a piece of parchment, completely covered with names.
"That many..." Kael was surprised:
"No one's in school right now—why do they even need Skiving Snackboxes?"
"Haven't you noticed most of these names are first-year young wizards? And almost all the orders are for Ton-Tongue Toffee."
Fred laughed and said, "During holidays, they can't use magic..."
"But these magical candies let them show off some magic weirdness at home."
"It was an idea George and I came up with before the break"
Fred said proudly, "We also cut back a bit on the Engorgement Potion, so the tongue effect isn't quite so dramatic."
"Sure enough, it's a hit..."
Then Fred suddenly looked annoyed. "But Percy Big-Head keeps hogging Errol and refuses to let us use him these days."
"Alright then." Kael nodded and stepped outside, holding out his arm.
"Ladon!"
In a moment, a huge owl came swooping in from the woods nearby, its belly round as a ball—it must have just come back from an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"That is one impressive bird."
Even though he'd seen Ladon plenty of times, Fred still glanced at it in awe.
They're all owls, but Ladon was bigger than two Errols put together—what a monster bird.
Plus, Fred had a feeling the owl had grown again since last time. He really had no clue what Kael was feeding it.
Looking at Ladon, Fred seemed to think of something. He whispered, "Will it follow other mail owls?"
"What are you up to?" Kael asked warily.
Were they thinking about owl surveillance? That was almost criminal. What, are they planning to get customers at Azkaban next?
"Not other people's owls—Percy's."
George said mysteriously:
"He keeps saying he's sending letters to compare homework with other prefects..."
"But we're sure that's not it..."
"The way he looks when he's sending letters is just weird, like a gnome stealing potatoes..."
"So we just want to see who he's actually writing to."
Kael shook his head and said seriously, "My advice? Don't even think about it. Ladon wouldn't go along, and honestly, no owl would. Some might even refuse to work entirely."
"Relax, we know there's no way the owls would actually help. We were just joking, not really gonna do it."
Kael noticed the mischievous smirks on Fred and George's faces—then realized they'd been playing around with him just now on purpose.
George shrugged and said, "We've gotta get these customers their long-awaited products."
"Way more important than Percy Big-Head."
...