Leon Cromwell did not return to his office until after midnight.
Instead of going straight to bed, he spent another hour organizing the manuscripts scattered across his desk.
The basilisk hidden beneath Hogwarts remained a serious concern.
A creature capable of killing through direct eye contact was dangerous even to an eleventh-level Wizard.
Fortunately, Leon was not completely helpless against it.
The fourth-circle spell [Arcane Eye] could create an invisible magical sensor and transmit everything it saw directly into his mind, allowing him to observe the creature without exposing his own eyes.
Even so, he refused to act recklessly.
He had no idea whether [Hold Monster] would work on an ancient basilisk, and testing that theory without preparation could cost him his life.
Until he understood its resistances and supernatural abilities, provoking it would be foolish.
After finishing his work, Leon entered the bedroom connected to his office and fell asleep almost immediately.
Unlike an ordinary dream, however, he became conscious within it.
Leon found himself floating in an endless pale-purple space.
Waves of shifting light moved around him like an aurora, while countless white stars shimmered in the distance.
The sight was breathtaking, yet the overwhelming magical pressure surrounding him prevented him from relaxing.
“Where am I?” He immediately realized that this was not a natural dream.
Either someone had entered his mind, or an unknown force had drawn his consciousness away from the physical world.
Neither possibility was comforting, especially since Leon could not imagine any wizard he had encountered possessing such an ability.
A faint humanoid figure stood far away, silently watching him.
Leon tried to move closer, but the distance between them never changed.
No matter how far he traveled, the figure remained equally distant.
Then an enormous pair of violet eyes opened within the star-filled space.
The moment Leon met their gaze, he jolted awake.
His breathing was heavy, and his pajamas were soaked with cold sweat.
Just before waking, he thought he had heard the voice of a woman—gentle, powerful, and speaking in a language he could not understand.
Leon had barely begun processing the experience when the ring on his left little finger grew hot.
His expression changed immediately.
The ring was connected to the warning system surrounding his mansion near Highgate Cemetery.
Heat meant that an unknown creature had crossed the outer perimeter.
That should not have been possible.
Leon had placed more defensive spells around the mansion than he had ever used on his tower in Albania.
The property was protected by layered detection wards, automatic barriers, summoning formations, and several local enchantments, including a Muggle-Repelling Charm.
He snapped his fingers, instantly replacing his pajamas with a black robe, and hurried from the room.
Leon had intended to build a permanent [Teleportation Circle] inside his Hogwarts office, but the castle’s anti-Apparition protections also interfered with his teleportation magic.
As a compromise, he had hidden the matching circle in a secluded location beyond the school grounds.
Several minutes later, he reached it and activated the array.
Late-night rain fell across northern London, covering the crooked graves of Highgate Cemetery in a thin layer of water.
A faint silver barrier, invisible to ordinary Muggles, surrounded Leon’s estate and kept the rain from entering the courtyard.
The mansion’s iron gate stood open.
A small figure waited on the stone path beyond it.
After teleporting into the estate, Leon concealed himself beneath [Greater Invisibility] and observed the intruder from the shadows.
She appeared to be a girl no older than ten.
Brown hair hung around her face, and she wore a thin white dress that offered little protection from the cold.
Her bare feet rested on the muddy, moss-covered path.
What disturbed Leon most was not her appearance.
None of the mansion’s defenses had activated.
The wards had not been dispelled or destroyed.
They had simply failed to acknowledge her existence.
“Come out, Wizard.” The girl turned her head toward Leon’s exact location.
Her voice sounded childish, yet her tone carried the exhaustion and confidence of someone far older.
“An excellent [Greater Invisibility], but the fluctuations in your magic reveal where you are.” Since his concealment had already failed, Leon dismissed the spell and stepped from the darkness.
“Who are you?” he asked coldly.
“Entering another Wizard’s territory without permission is hardly polite.” The girl tilted her head but ignored the question.
“[Wall of Fire].
Earth elementals.
[Wall of Force]…” Her gaze moved across the courtyard.
“Death wards.” Leon’s eyes narrowed.
Even Dumbledore, despite reading several of Leon’s manuscripts, could not identify every spell woven into the estate.
The person standing before him was clearly not an ordinary child.
Leon did not hesitate.
He cast [Protection from Evil and Good], followed by [Protection from Energy] and [Stoneskin].
Layers of defensive magic wrapped around his body within seconds.
The girl watched him without moving.
Leon attacked first.
Pale blue energy formed around her feet, locking her body inside the influence of [Hold Person].
At the same moment, eight twisting patterns of colored light appeared around her, filling her vision with the hypnotic power of [Hypnotic Pattern].
Before she could respond, Leon followed with [Slow].
The flow of time around the girl thickened, reducing every movement to a fraction of its normal speed.
Then the earth beneath her began to churn.
“[Evard’s Black Tentacles].” Dozens of slick black limbs erupted from the ground.
Cold energy from the void rolled across the courtyard as the tentacles wrapped around the small figure and dragged her toward the mud.
Leon still did not stop.
“[Ice Storm].” A freezing wind descended from above.
Fist-sized chunks of hail and razor-sharp fragments of ice crashed into the area, tearing through the tentacles and reducing Leon’s carefully maintained courtyard to ruins.
Frozen soil exploded into the air, shattered stones scattered across the path, and white mist covered everything within sight.
At the same time, Leon cast [Dimension Door] and reappeared in another section of the courtyard.
His ebony wand was already raised, and his strongest offensive spell waited at the edge of his mind.
Extreme caution had kept him alive in Albania.
Thanks to [Weave Unbound], Leon could cast spells of the fourth circle and below without consuming limited spell slots.
Against an unknown enemy, his preferred strategy was simple—overwhelm them with layered control magic, then bombard the area until nothing remained capable of fighting back.
A painful cough emerged from the frozen mist.
“Cough… cough…” The girl slowly walked out of the destruction.
Her white dress had been torn by the black tentacles, and translucent slime covered her arms and legs.
The cold had turned her skin red, while several severed tentacle tips still clung to the ruined fabric.
The lingering effect of [Slow] forced her to move one deliberate step at a time.
“That was rather merciless,” she said pitifully.
Two tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.
Leon remained unmoved.
No ordinary child could survive that combination of spells, much less emerge with only superficial injuries.
“[Disintegrate].” He aimed the ebony wand at her.
Although Leon did not normally require a wand, using one helped him direct precise ray attacks.
Dark green energy gathered at the tip, carrying the terrifying power to break matter apart at its most fundamental level.
The girl’s expression changed.
“Why won’t you listen to me?” A thin green beam tore through the air.
At such close range, with [Slow] still affecting her movements, avoiding the attack should have been impossible.
The girl tried to move, realized she was too late, and released a quiet sigh.
Then she raised her left hand and reached directly toward the ray.
Silver flames erupted across her palm.
The fire swallowed the beam of [Disintegrate], burning away the spell until not even a trace of green light remained.
Leon stared at her in disbelief.
“What kind of magic is that?” He had never encountered anything similar in the Forgotten Realms system or British wizarding magic.
Neutralizing a sixth-circle spell with a bare hand should not have been possible.
The girl shook the last sparks from her fingers, and the silver fire disappeared.
“You win, Leon Cromwell.” She looked at him with an apologetic smile.
“If anyone else had been standing here, they would already be dead.” “Who are you?” The girl gave no answer.
Instead, she straightened what remained of her dress and offered him a small bow.
Silver light began to gather around her body.
“You will learn the answer eventually, Professor Cromwell.” Space twisted around her.
“Teleport.” A pulse of magic crossed the ruined courtyard, and the mysterious girl vanished without leaving a trace.
Leon remained where he stood, his wand still raised, while the last of the black tentacles slowly dissolved behind him.
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