"Good morning."
Early that morning, Tver arrived at the Black family home in Grimmauld Place as arranged.
There was still a little under half a month left of summer vacation, and he was finally getting to enjoy some actual downtime.
As for what he had promised the Prime Minister...
Tver really did not have any good way to cure mad cow disease for the time being. After all, no wizard was likely to be bored enough to study the consequences of cows eating their own kind.
And as for making infected cattle drink specially tailored potions, even Tver, wealthy as he was now, would not dare imagine footing that bill...
In the end, all he wanted was to win the goodwill of the Prime Minister and other senior British officials. It was not worth any greater investment on his part.
So after casually handing off the task of "persuading" the EU members to Bulstrode, who had returned to Britain with Ian Russell, Tver was free to relax for a while.
The reason it was only for a while was that the Joint Office was still in the middle of preparations. As for the British government in particular, even with the Prime Minister's approval, some staff still had to be brought around to the very idea of magic...
And today was simply the time for the Order of the Phoenix's periodic work summary. He was purely here to make up the numbers.
"Morning..." Sirius yawned and stepped aside from the doorway.
"We talked some things over last night. I can fill you in later, but everyone's still half asleep, so the meeting's been pushed back a bit."
"I can see that," Tver said carelessly.
He was here to watch the fun anyway. Dumbledore had kept insisting that he get involved in the Order's work and even help make decisions.
But if Tver wanted to slack off, even Dumbledore could not stop him.
"By the way, what's Dumbledore been up to lately? I haven't heard much about him," Tver asked casually as he stepped inside.
Dumbledore knew about the Horcruxes, and Tver had told him about some of the ones he had already destroyed.
So at a time like this, was Dumbledore... studying Harry, the human Horcrux?
"No idea... haah." Sirius shut the door with a casual motion, his exhaustion obvious in his voice.
"Sn... Snape mentioned a few times that Dumbledore's been researching something, and every now and then he goes to the Ministry to chat with some old friend."
"The Ministry? An old friend?" Tver turned around in surprise.
If there was anyone in the wizarding world who could truly claim to have friends everywhere, it was Dumbledore, and Dumbledore alone.
Especially among the older wizards, plenty of them had known him for decades.
But with Fudge so openly hostile, Dumbledore was actually going to the Ministry?
"You didn't know?" Sirius looked even more surprised. "I heard Dumbledore said he was going there to hand work over to you."
"..."
Tver had not seen Dumbledore at all during this stretch, so where exactly was this supposed handover coming from...
Seeing the look on Tver's face, Sirius immediately understood.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you didn't know. Anyway, Dumbledore's been going to the Department of Mysteries. Something about researching souls, I think. We don't really get it either..."
"Professor? What are you doing here?" Hermione was coming down the stairs and looked at Tver in delight.
"Here for the meeting." Tver smiled and waved at her. "Though I'm more surprised you're up so early during summer vacation."
"Actually, Harry and the others and I were talking about the meeting last night, so I already got up later than usual..."
Hermione suddenly realized she had let something slip and slapped a hand over her mouth.
Sirius gave a helpless smile. "Just don't let Molly hear that."
"Don't let me hear what?" Mrs. Weasley stuck half her body out of the kitchen. "You're here, Tver. Come in and have breakfast."
With that, she ducked back into the kitchen and got busy again.
Hermione immediately let out a breath of relief, shrank back a little with lingering fear, and stuck her tongue out at Tver.
"Looks like you've all been pretty mischievous here."
Tver headed into the kitchen first and sat down on one side of the table, while Sirius and Hermione took seats on either side of him.
Hermione's face reddened slightly.
"We're already much better than George and Fred..." she muttered in her own defense.
"What have those two done?" Tver asked curiously.
Since the Weasley twins still had to go back to school, their products were temporarily being sold on commission through the joke shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.
They lost some profit that way, but it saved them time and energy and let them focus on developing new products.
Hermione carefully glanced toward where Mrs. Weasley was, then lowered her head and said in a small voice, "They've been secretly stuffing prank toys into our rooms. Ron and Harry especially keep getting hit by them."
"They recover pretty quickly, but every time it happens, Mrs. Weasley gets annoyed. She's tried several times, but she still hasn't managed to confiscate all their stuff..."
Clatter.
Mrs. Weasley dropped a large platter of grilled sausages and fried eggs onto the table in front of them with a blank expression, followed by plates for the three of them.
Feeling the displeasure of a mother firsthand, they all hurriedly shut up and started eating the delicious breakfast.
"This is excellent." After taking a bite of sausage, Tver turned to Mrs. Weasley with a flattering smile. "Your cooking is far better than my mother's."
At that, Mrs. Weasley sighed and set a basket of bread in front of him.
"Compared to that, I'd much rather my sons were learning useful things from you instead of all those ridiculous prank gadgets."
Tver raised an eyebrow. He very much wanted to tell her that he had never taught them how to make prank items at all. That was entirely the result of the twins' own natural gifts.
But Mrs. Weasley clearly was not in the mood to hear that kind of excuse.
"They're incredibly talented in that area. You could even say they're better at it than anyone else in the world."
Seeing Tver openly discuss something like this with Mrs. Weasley of all people, Sirius and Hermione both looked up in shock, one with a sausage hanging from his mouth, the other chewing on fried egg.
"The hardest magic in this world is the kind that brings joy to people." Tver ignored the comic expressions on their faces and kept his eyes on Mrs. Weasley.
"Mrs. Weasley, if I forbade them from pursuing what they truly love, that would be the same as erasing the brilliant life they were meant to have."
"But... I just feel like that sort of thing isn't very dependable..."
Mrs. Weasley was somewhat swayed, but as a parent, she still wanted her children to have better lives in the future.
At the very least, she did not want them to struggle the way the Weasley family did now.
"There are already far too many mediocre officials in this world. Why not let them try to become a pair of remarkable people who spread joy across the whole world?"