Chapter 88. Danger!
At Lynn's home.
Kira, aside from weeping bitterly, didn't answer his question.
He didn't need it to answer; Lynn already knew the answer from its reaction.
He sighed and put the black cross in his pocket.
To be honest, being a descendant of Grindelwald only sounded prestigious; in reality, aside from his talent for dark magic, all that remained was trouble.
The Professor Fawkes he'd been with these past two days was clearly a fake, evident from subtle details. Lynn had a guess about who he was, but because of the identity of that person, this guess would remain a guess forever.
As for those saints, Lynn thought their later lies might be due to the presence of that fake Professor Fawkes, or perhaps some other reason.
But that wasn't important. He couldn't possibly seek out these former followers of Grindelwald. Under Dumbledore's nose, someone of his status daring to contact that force would be asking for trouble.
He didn't dwell on how Kira had tricked him into Abrose. That was the situation then; before they had established absolute trust, if Kira had told Lynn that entering the city would cost him his magic, Lynn would have turned around and left. His life at Hogwarts was going smoothly; why take that risk?
Even now, if he could go back in time and choose again, Lynn would never enter that city now, because the risks and rewards were completely different.
The increase in magic and the Black Cross's wandless spellcasting effect were merely icing on the cake for him now, not essential. But without magic, he would be utterly useless as a wizard.
Lynn didn't say much to Kira. He hadn't had a proper rest in the past two days and just wanted to lie down on his familiar bed and sleep.
He slept until noon the next day.
When he woke up, Kira had already prepared lunch for him.
This decadent lifestyle, like that of an old-fashioned nouveau riche, made Lynn despise himself as he ate his food heartily.
"So what's the deal with this house I'm living in now? And where did all that inheritance come from?"
Kira hesitated before sitting down opposite Lynn. It had originally intended to stand, but Lynn insisted it sit so it could talk more easily.
"Your parents do exist in Muggle society, but they have no children. Kira used a forgetting spell to alter some Muggle memories, giving you this false identity."
"And what about it? What is it?" Lynn pointed to Umaru, who was perched on the table, its small eyes fixed intently on the meat on his plate.
Kira looked at the white hamster for a moment, hesitated, and then spoke.
"You don't have to hide it from your little master anymore, Sophia. Change back."
Hearing Kira's instruction, Umaru leaped off the table and transformed from animal to human in the blink of an eye.
"Ding-dong!"
The little girl even added her own sound effects after transforming.
Lynn was stunned. She
really had changed!
"Who…who is she?" The situation was too sudden, the information too overwhelming; Lynn couldn't process it all.
Kira explained to him, "Her full name is Sophia Basak, a distant cousin of yours."
"She's an Animagus?" Lynn was shocked because she looked so young, at most seven or eight years old.
"Her situation is a bit special…" Kira didn't know how to explain to Lynn, "Her Animagus was present at birth, but not entirely innate; it's related to her mother."
"Then why is she with you?"
"Her mother entrusted her to Kira, and Kira has raised her all these years."
The hamster girl made a face at Kira, then looked at Lynn with pitiful blinking eyes.
"Cousin, aren't you going to give me a little something?"
Hearing this, Lynn quickly patted his pockets.
"Uh, this was a bit too sudden. I didn't prepare anything beforehand. How about I give you something next time?"
The little girl shook her head vigorously.
"No, no, actually... that's fine."
Looking at the direction she was pointing, it was the meatball Lynn hadn't yet taken a bite of on the plate.
"That's the little master's lunch! Not yours!" Kira shouted angrily.
Lynn hesitated, not because he was reluctant to part with it, but because he felt the gift was too casual.
"Isn't this too simple as a greeting gift?"
"Not simple, not simple at all! Such a big meatball is anything but simple!"
"Then you can have it."
He pushed the plate in front of the little girl, but before he could even offer her a fork, Xiaomai opened her mouth and started gnawing on the meatball.
"Delicious!"
"Your name is... Sophia?"
"That's the name Kira gave me, but I don't like it. You can call me James Bond!"
Lynn was speechless.
"Then I'll still call you Umaru. How did you live with Kira before?"
"Kira used to live with me in a place not far from here. Actually, she was pretty good to me. She cooked for me every day, although there wasn't much meat, but at least once every three days. She even put on TV for me to watch. 007 was so cool! And Terminator too! But after you went to Hogwarts, I could only be a hamster every day, eating bread and biscuits."
"Didn't I start feeding you meat later?"
"But you were obviously suspicious of me by then. I was afraid that if you found out I was a spy, you'd chop me up and cook me, so every meal of meat felt like my last."
"You're a hamster, not a bamboo rat..."
"I can't eat anything that's rodent!"
Lynn chatted with Umaru for a while, finding this suddenly added cousin quite interesting.
After lunch, Kira was busy cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen. Lynn wanted to do it himself, but Kira firmly refused. Umaru, meanwhile, lay on the sofa, hugging her little belly, contentedly closing her eyes to take a nap.
With nothing else to do, Lynn went to the balcony to digest his food.
He'd been away from home for a year, yet the yard was still impeccably maintained, showing no signs of long-term neglect.
Lynn, of course, hadn't forgotten who was responsible for this, and he planned to visit Miss Granger next door that afternoon to properly thank her.
Just as he was thinking about what gift to bring, Lynn suddenly felt two malicious gazes fixed on him!
Startled, he looked towards the source of the gazes.
Downstairs, outside the front door, stood two people, one tall and one short.
The tall one had slicked-back hair and a pale face, dressed in a black robe that covered him completely in the summer heat, looking like an old bat spirit.
The shorter one had long, bushy chestnut hair, large eyes, a high nose, and wore a cute little dress, looking like a little squirrel spirit.
They both stared blankly at Lynn on the balcony with eyes that could freeze a person to death.
After a full five seconds of stunned silence, Lynn finally grasped the situation and was immediately drenched in cold sweat.
A large "Danger" was floating above his head!
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(End of Chapter)