"Little Star..."
Even Noah hesitated to speak. The final wand shell Lys had completed looked like a glittering toad...
It was truly...
Too bloody ugly!!
But Lys was rather satisfied with it. Though the labradorite looked lumpy and bumpy, the few gleams of light that flashed when she raised her wand simply sparkled straight into her heart.
However, the wand was eventually snatched away by Senna. When it was returned to Lys, she couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed, but it looked infinitely better than what Lys had crafted. Under a layer of clear crystal infusion, the labradorite appeared more beautiful and brilliant than ever.
Senna had even created several other shells and wand decorations for her.
She'd especially added a delicate little mechanism for removing the shells—exquisitely crafted. Lys carefully praised Senna, attempting to ease her mother's twisted expression, but Senna still radiated fury.
Now Lys's favourite shell was the one where labradorite gradually faded from handle to tip—exceptionally dazzling.
"This way no one can recognise me by my wand," Lys declared with satisfaction.
Noah offered no comment on this matter.
When Lys was discussing with Noah about wanting additional pockets in her dragon hide jacket, Senna finally overcame her inner barriers: "You... you're preparing so thoroughly—what exactly are you planning to do?"
Noah and Lys both looked up at her in unison, making her face drain of colour instantly. "You... I mean... stay safe."
Her voice grew progressively weaker as she finished speaking. Senna yanked back the hem of her robes that Fry was tugging at and stormed off aggressively.
The chorus of "Yes, Mum! I know, Mum! I will, Mum!" behind her sounded exactly like when she'd first given Lys that fat snake...
But this also helped disperse some of the tightness in Senna's chest.
Lys and Noah exchanged glances and made a happy swaying motion, leaving Noah momentarily speechless.
He naturally understood there was an invisible chain connecting the three people in this household. Little Star cared most about Senna, Senna cared most about her husband, and he himself harboured both guilt and love toward these two women in his family.
But now it seemed this chain was beginning to dissolve invisibly.
He shook his leg to prevent his son from gnawing on his shin again, then lowered his head to cut dragon hide according to Lys's specifications, trying to make the pockets on the blueprint as inconspicuous as possible.
His daughter's aesthetic sense... was severely polarised. Either extremely minimalist, or... he glanced again at the wand in Little Star's hand and sighed deeply.
Lys walked to the fruit tree in the courtyard that remained spindly and thin despite all the fertiliser and care lavished upon it. She transfigured a soft cushion with magic and settled down.
"Herpo called out loudly from ships far offshore, thirsting for power, mysterious beings within thunderclouds... the wizard with the hairy heart lacked courage to resist, remaining forever on the seabed... whilst Herpo and his followers stepped onto fertile soil, escaping the dark, bewildering illusion."
Her drooping lashes lifted, allowing her raised head and grey eyes to gaze toward the starry sky above. The mountain pressing upon her skull was briefly lifted away. She'd already savoured the life she desired—if she wished this existence to continue, she needed the power to either escape the mountain or shatter the stone entirely.
Lys practised Portkey creation with determination. Whilst Britain required Portkey creation to be registered, Germany had no such regulation she'd heard of.
If Lys possessed the skill, she could craft international Portkeys and they wouldn't bat an eye—but the sole requirement was causing no trouble. Should problems arise, the local authorities wouldn't prove nearly so accommodating.
So to ensure she could return home at any moment, Lys earnestly studied how to create these objects. But just as when Lys had practised Apparition, her targeting always felt rather... intoxicated.
She purchased some Cornish Pixies from the market specifically to test her Portkeys at home.
Test results revealed that whilst Lys's creations were safe, even nearby destinations suffered considerable deviation errors.
This left Lys and Noah staring at each other helplessly. With such massive errors, a long-distance journey might see Lys hurled into the bloody ocean...
"Well... it's quite alright, Little Star. Most wizards struggle even to pronounce the Portus incantation properly, let alone craft a safe Portkey. Perhaps you should practise more before putting it to use?"
"I think you're absolutely right, Dad."
Lys could only reluctantly abandon her plan for immediate homecoming.
After thorough preparation, Lys lifted her suitcase and donned the dragon hide coat Noah had crafted for her. Originally, this should have been a jacket.
But Noah had refused that particular style—the effect of dragon hide stretched across Lys was truly beyond description.
Over-tanned dragon hide sacrificed some defensive properties, but the increased drape dramatically improved its aesthetic appeal.
Suitcase in hand, Lys wrestled Crunch's tail from the constantly hissing Fry.
"Go play with your fur ball! Crunch is mine!"
Witnessing the little creature's wide-eyed, incredulous expression, Lys waved to Senna upstairs and Noah at the doorway: "I'll find time to come back."
Accompanied by Fry's bewildered hissing, Lys donned her mask and Disapparated. She'd head to Berlin first, then begin her proper journey.
Arriving in Berlin, Lys half-carried Crunch on her shoulder before examining the note in her hand. Written German differed somewhat from everyday speech.
She carefully deciphered it before matching it to street signs in the Muggle district, then cast Notice-Me-Not and Muggle-Repelling Charms upon herself—a universal requirement across magical communities worldwide that Lys had no desire to challenge.
She wandered the streets, observing Muggle metal contraptions speeding past and enormous screens on street corners displaying vivid, colourful imagery.
She even spotted the Muggle hospital Little St. Mungo's had mentioned during the trial. Lys was tremendously interested—she'd been fascinated by fat, blood vessels, membranes, nerves, organs and such since fourth or fifth year, and compared to wizards, Muggles seemed far more advanced in this field.
But since she didn't understand what Little St. Mungo's had meant about Muggles' methods of detecting wizards, she chose to visit at journey's end to minimise potential complications affecting her travels.
After crossing half a district and double-checking the address, Lys gently tapped an incongruous snowman's nose twice with her wand.
The snowman of indeterminate material suddenly rotated its dust-laden head, then leapt aside abruptly, revealing the pitch-black opening beneath.
Lys stepped forward and plummeted vertically through the shaft. The snowman rotated its head once more, hopped back to seal the opening, and remained perfectly still.
Throughout the entire process, not even a single speck of dust on its nose was disturbed.
Falling vertically, Lys raised her wand slightly. After two heartbeats, she landed upon an extraordinarily resilient net.
Casting the Hovering Charm, she swiftly righted herself. Carrying Crunch, Lys attempted to leap from the net, only to find her ankle ensnared by something, her entire body pitching forward.
However, thanks to Lys'sHovering Charm, she bobbed gently like a tethered soap bubble rather than suffering the usual newcomer's fate of face-planting on the ground.
Whispered voices drifted from the surrounding shadows, and someone chuckled. Lys laughed as well. When she stepped forward again, the vines encircling her ankle writhed and dissolved under her magical power.
Someone applauded softly, expressing appreciation for the newcomer's magical control.
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