New chapter!
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“Old Tom, it has been a while.”
Aurelian and Catherine stepped out of the Leaky Cauldron fireplace.
As Catherine brushed soot from his clothes, Aurelian greeted the pub’s owner.
“Master Aurelian, Miss Catherine.
It has been a while.
The usual?
Butterbeer?”
Old Tom smiled back when he saw him.
“Not today.
We came to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies.
I will give you some business next time.”
Aurelian waved off the invitation.
“So Master Aurelian is old enough for school already.
Hogwarts, is it?”
Tom understood at once.
In the blink of an eye, Aurelian had turned eleven.
“Yes.
Hogwarts.
By the way, Tom, what are they talking about over there?
I think I heard Harry Potter and Voldemort.”
Aurelian had suddenly caught fragments of conversation from farther inside the pub.
People were mentioning Harry Potter and You-Know-Who.
You-Know-Who meant Voldemort, of course; fear made people avoid saying his name aloud.
“Master Aurelian, do not say that name.”
Tom shuddered violently when Aurelian said Voldemort’s name directly.
The glass in his hand slipped and smashed on the floor.
“Tom, if you cannot even say a person’s name, you only make your fear of him worse.”
Aurelian looked at his reaction helplessly.
But seeing Tom’s frightened face, he finally nodded.
“All right, all right.
I will not mention him.
What happened?
Tell me.”
“It is like this.
This morning, Hogwarts gamekeeper Hagrid came here with Harry Potter.
Potter is old enough for school now too, and they went to Diagon Alley to buy his supplies.”
Once Aurelian stopped saying Voldemort’s name, the fear on Tom’s face slowly faded, and he explained the matter to Aurelian and Catherine.
“That means Master Aurelian and the savior will be in the same year.”
Tom realized it the moment he finished explaining.
“It seems the arrival of our celebrated savior has given everyone something to talk about.”
Aurelian spoke to Catherine with a hint of sarcasm.
He still minded Dumbledore’s request from a year earlier that he become Harry Potter’s helper.
After chatting with Tom a little longer, Aurelian and Catherine said goodbye and entered Diagon Alley.
As they left, Aurelian suddenly felt as if someone were watching him.
He looked around but found nothing unusual, so he soon set the feeling aside.
…
“There are so many people today.”
After entering Diagon Alley, Catherine looked at the crowded street and sighed.
“School is about to start.
New students and returning students all come to Diagon Alley around this time to buy books and supplies.
Add the scum trying to make money off the crowd, and this is the busiest season every year.”
Aurelian drew his wand and pointed toward a man in the distance who was trying to slip a hand into a student’s bag.
The man suddenly collapsed unconscious on the ground.
“Come on.
We will go to Gringotts first.
The money you have on you should not be enough anymore.”
Under the grateful gaze of the student he had helped, Aurelian led Catherine toward Gringotts.
“Take me to Aurelian Pendragon’s vault.”
Once inside Gringotts, Aurelian slapped his wand onto the counter and spoke coldly.
His dislike of goblins had not changed.
“Master Aurelian.
Please wait a moment.”
The managing goblin behind the counter bowed respectfully when he saw Aurelian, then took down a ring of keys and led him through a door.
“How many times have I told you?
Can you not change this method of transportation?”
Aurelian frowned at the cart in front of him and complained to the goblin.
“My apologies, Master Aurelian.
This is also part of Gringotts security, and it is not something a goblin of my rank can change.”
The goblin explained nervously.
“Forget it.
Lead the way.”
Aurelian knew it was useless to argue with this goblin.
In the end, he climbed into the cart, and Catherine followed him.
The goblin took the driver’s position, and the cart shot down into the depths beneath the bank.
“Master Aurelian, we have arrived.”
More than ten minutes later, the cart stopped outside a cavern.
Aurelian followed the goblin inside and reached the door of the vault he had visited three years earlier.
The goblin inserted the key, then had Aurelian place his hand on the palm print set into the door.
The vault slowly opened.
“Good.
Father did not lie to me.”
Aurelian saw the piles of gleaming Galleons inside and finally relaxed.
Catherine scooped a handful of Galleons into her bag, and the two left the vault.
“All right.
Let us go…”
After the vault door closed, Aurelian and Catherine prepared to leave.
Before he could finish speaking, an alarm suddenly rang out.
“What is happening?”
Aurelian frowned at the managing goblin.
The goblin’s face had gone panicked as well.
Master Aurelian, what do we do?”
The goblin grew increasingly frantic as the alarm drew closer.
Anyone who could break through Gringotts’s defenses and enter the underground vaults was clearly far from ordinary.
The closer alarm meant the intruder was heading their way, and if anything happened to Aurelian, ten goblin lives would not be enough to pay for it.
“Why are you panicking?
Do we have anywhere to run?”
Aurelian shot the goblin an irritated look and drew his wand.
Catherine did the same beside him.
A short while later, a figure wrapped entirely in black robes and holding a wand suddenly burst in, charging straight toward Aurelian.
“Impedimenta!”
“Stupefy!”
The instant the black-robed figure appeared, Aurelian and Catherine fired two spells.
To their surprise, the intruder swept his wand and deflected both with ease.
“This is going to be troublesome.”
Seeing their attacks blocked so easily, Aurelian grew even more alert.
“Ventus!”
After dodging one of the intruder’s spells, Aurelian waved his wand.
Dust and grit lifted from the ground and swirled up, blocking the black-robed figure’s line of sight.
Using the cover, Catherine tapped her wand lightly on her head and cast a Disillusionment Charm.
Her colors began to fade, and after a moment, she disappeared.
“Scourgify.”
The instant Catherine vanished, a low voice sounded.
The dust between Aurelian and the black-robed figure disappeared at once.
“Incendio!”
“Expelliarmus!”
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Aurelian had already prepared.
As soon as the dust cleared, he fired three spells in succession.
But the intruder seemed to have expected his response.
He shifted aside to dodge the first spell, waved his wand to deflect the second, then leapt swiftly into the air so the third missed as well.
“Stupe…”
“Incarcerous!”
The instant the intruder landed, Catherine appeared behind him and launched a surprise attack.
But before her spell could fire, ropes suddenly sprang into being, bound her, and interrupted her casting.
Catherine struggled, trying to break free, but the ropes only tightened.
“As expected of House Pendragon’s genius heir.
Your strength and composure truly are far beyond your peers.
Even in this situation, you remained calm enough to use yourself as bait and have your maid ambush the enemy.
Unfortunately, you met me.
When the gap in strength is this wide, clever tricks are useless.”
After subduing Catherine, the black-robed figure turned his attention back to Aurelian.
Aurelian’s heart sank.
He knew he was not this person’s match.
Catherine had been captured, Phoenix was currently in its rebirth cycle, and the managing goblin was crouched to the side trembling, entirely useless.
For the first time in a while, Aurelian found the situation genuinely difficult to handle.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.