From then on, Lys's legitimate business and underground channels were tacitly accepted, with no one targeting her out of spite anymore.
Afterward, such matters were all coordinated by Lucy. Ever since Lys had taught her daughter Lulu how to use a wand and magic, she could be said to be utterly devoted to Lys.
At this moment, Lucy looked at that blackthorn and dragon heartstring wand Lys had crafted, expressing her emotions through choked sobs.
She'd even just sworn an Unbreakable Vow to Lys!
And Lulu clutched that blackthorn and dragon heartstring wand Lys had handed to her with both hands, her eyes reflecting the light of several birds flying from the wand tip, unable to recover from the smooth magical power flowing around her for ages.
Following Lys's example, she slipped it into the wand holster at her side. Lulu's hands trembled with excitement—she desperately wanted to make an Unbreakable Vow on the spot as well, but Lys stopped her.
Lys had never heard Lulu speak a complete sentence, and besides, a vow binding one's entire life? Better to wait until she was older to think about it.
After understanding Lys's preferences, Lucy had even managed to obtain a recording of Gellert Grindelwald's speech that was absolutely forbidden on the market—something that would be destroyed if discovered.
It wasn't from any famous occasion; it looked more like Grindelwald having a casual conversation with someone.
Lys could hear the temptation and persuasion in that man's words—the one she'd collected a thick book of clippings about. The person beyond the frame seemed to understand this too.
But the precisely grasped desire made resistance impossible. The rising black smoke seemed proof of an attempt to fight back.
Yet the man who moved with casual abandon simply snapped his fingers. With a few simple syllables from his mouth, the wand and light around him in the frame extinguished the scattered dark mist.
The image gradually blurred. Someone seemed to ask something, and vague words drifted through: "That's because of unequal standing... the unknown... fear... sometimes when we say yes aloud, isn't it really no?"
The image gradually turned white and stopped playing as Grindelwald looked toward the camera, but Lys didn't immediately cut off her magical supply.
That glance seemed both mocking and penetrating, making Lys's heartbeat gradually intensify.
He was right. How many of the yeses she'd spoken over the years were truly yes?
Lys looked at her brother picking up Pygmy Puff fur from under the lifted carpet, at Dad's neatly stacked fabric ledgers, Mum's chaotic material shelves, and the polished snake bones in Crunch's nest. She straightened her shoulders and saw herself reflected in the glass by candlelight.
She couldn't deny her addiction to this beautiful life. She'd even relaxed far too much in the half-year since returning from Britain...
Perhaps she should find something to occupy herself. Her abilities weren't sufficient for her to freely say no.
Unequal standing, the unknown, fear...
Her childhood home, Hogwarts, Death Eaters...
Lys's heart pounded wildly. She realised that despite being in Germany for so long, she hadn't visited Nurmengard yet.
That black tower looming in wizards' hearts...
Nurmengard's location was infamous. To some extent, foreign wizards would even visit it like a tourist attraction, though this infuriated many people.
A terrible wizard who'd killed countless souls, a wizard who'd razed a major city with Fiendfyre, a wizard who'd nearly brought European wizarding communities to their knees—having him viewed as a landmark by ignorant foreigners made the victims' descendants seethe with rage.
But they couldn't constantly reopen those wounds to argue with people who simply didn't care. Eventually, few locals set foot in that area.
Now Lys stood silently in the dense forest beneath that tower. Only the tower's peak was visible here, but Lys remained there for ages.
Grindelwald—expelled from school in his youth for studying forbidden Dark Arts, then travelled the world promoting his ideology, pushing every European wizard's boundaries.
But he'd stood at the pinnacle, coming within a hair's breadth of achieving his desires, his vision.
What had he relied upon?
Lys didn't know how brilliant Grindelwald's mind truly was, how many rules and hearts he'd manipulated.
Lys hadn't encountered or deeply understood many of this world's rules, but she knew that without power, he would've been thrown into prison the moment he first spoke of overthrowing the Statute of Secrecy.
Never to rise again.
Lys remembered a newspaper photograph—Grindelwald at his capture. Even with that man bound to the ground by spells, his lips curved slightly upward. That trace of contempt was pure confidence; he knew he would emerge again...
That was confidence born of power!
Lys suddenly shivered, pushing aside the thought that Voldemort might have been influenced by Grindelwald. She kept repeating to herself:
They were different.
But were they really?
Perhaps Lys already harboured an answer in her heart that she didn't wish to face.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to rekindle that hunger for power. Lys drew a breath, cast one final glance at the tower's peak, then turned away. She knew she needed to make choices about her scattered pursuits.
Grindelwald had travelled abroad, Voldemort had travelled abroad, and now Lys wanted to travel abroad too.
Once the thought took root and flourished in her heart, Lys knew her time at home wouldn't last much longer.
There was nothing more at home to teach her. She needed to venture forth and begin her own travels, like most wizards.
This kindled a spark of joy in Lys's heart. She could finally possess what other wizards considered an ordinary tradition.
No need to envy other young witches and wizards anymore. Lys smiled.
She would earn the freedom to make choices, to speak no aloud, to be herself.
But Lys couldn't guarantee she'd always abide by laws whilst abroad, so several false identities were rather necessary.
First and foremost was Lys's wand. Wands were practically wizards' identity documents—otherwise, incidents like Lucy's wand being nicked by her brother with the crimes pinned on Lucy wouldn't occur.
For this purpose, Lys crafted several shells for her wand, transforming it into a detachable design. After consideration, she couldn't resist embedding numerous labradorite cabochons into the new shells...
The completed wand shells made Senna heave a profound sigh. This child had inherited both of her outstanding talents, but mastered neither properly.
And what on earth was this dreadful aesthetic sense!
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