A clone of Nova stood outside a closed wooden door, staring at it longer than strictly necessary. The door was ordinary, unremarkable, and yet it perfectly symbolized the injustice of his current existence.
After several seconds, he released a slow, heavy sigh. Its really irritating when he needs to divide his consciousness, while he is fucking someone.
He could manage it if he was using this temporary clone body to fuck someone, but using it to do some work while other part of his consciousness is busy ploughing a Vella's tight pussy, it purely distracting.
Shaking his head, Nova turned away from the door and started walking. The long corridors of Hogwarts stretched ahead of him, lit by floating torches that cast warm, steady light across the ancient stone.
The castle was quiet at this hour, but it was never truly asleep. Portraits whispered behind their frames, eyes following his movement with open curiosity, and distant staircases creaked as they shifted of their own accord.
He moved with relaxed confidence, hands tucked into his pockets, his senses spread lightly through the surroundings out of habit rather than necessity. There were few things in Hogwarts capable of posing even a minor inconvenience to him, and most of those preferred to stay hidden.
"Ooooooh? And what might this be?"
The voice came from above, dripping with mischief and far too much enthusiasm. Nova stopped and looked up to see a translucent figure drifting down from the ceiling, spinning lazily in midair as bells jingled around his striped hat.
Peeves the Poltergeist hovered upside down, his grin wide and feral, eyes glittering with the joy of having found something new to harass.
"Well now," Peeves continued, circling Nova like a shark that had just scented blood. "You're not a student, and you're certainly not a professor. You don't glow right for a ghost either, and you smell far too solid."
He leaned in close, nose nearly touching Nova's face. "So what are you, hmm? A thief? An outsider? A bad, bad man sneaking through the castle when he shouldn't be?"
Nova regarded him with clear amusement, the corner of his lips twitching as he watched the ghost's reaction. He had actually been hoping to run into someone during his late-night walk, because this castle really was a den of trouble.
It hadn't even been a full day yet, and he'd already stumbled into nine idiots attacking a girl, ended up fucking a Veela, and now, of all things, crossed paths with one of the most troublesome ghosts in the entire place. Honestly, for a first day, Hogwarts was doing an excellent job of living up to its reputation.
Peeves clapped his hands together. "Oh, I know what to do with outsiders," he declared loudly. "We scream! We shout! We wake everyone up and make it everyone's problem!"
He drew in a massive breath, chest expanding as he prepared to unleash one of his infamous, ear-splitting shrieks that had sent students and professors alike running in the past.
Nova's gaze sharpened. Nope, not gonna allow that.
The pressure came purely from mental force, a crushing weight that slammed into Peeves' consciousness like a hammer. It overwhelmed the poltergeist instantly, scrambling his thoughts and snuffing out his momentum before it could fully form.
Peeves' eyes crossed, and the scream collapsed into a strangled wheeze. His body spasmed in midair, bells clanging wildly as he flailed for balance he no longer had.
"Wait—no—Whats happening?— Ahh Headache—"
His words dissolved into incoherent gibbering as his form went slack. With a soft, anticlimactic drift, Peeves floated downward and gently bumped against the wall before hanging there, unconscious, a faint spectral snore escaping him.
Nova exhaled slowly and shook his head.
"Dealing with ghosts and poltergeists is always easier than people think," he muttered. "If you don't want to injure them, you just overwhelm the mind."
He stepped past the suspended troublemaker and continued on his way without sparing him another glance.
Not long after, he reached the agreed meeting location. The corridor was empty, exactly as it shouldn't have been. Nova stopped and scanned the area once more, his brow creasing slightly in irritation.
Before he could comment, the air shimmered and distorted. Harry and Hermione appeared a few steps away as the invisibility cloak slipped from their shoulders, folding itself over Harry's arm. Harry looked faintly smug, while Hermione's expression carried the calm confidence of someone who had planned ahead.
Nova's eyes immediately flicked downward and then around them.
"Did neither of you bring any trunks?" he asked, with a raised brow. "You will be in the Black Clover world for an entire month."
Hermione smiled, clearly pleased, and raised her wrist. "I did plan for that."
She turned her arm slightly, revealing a silver bracelet etched with fine, precise runes. "This is a storage bracelet I finished recently. It works on the same spatial principles as enchanted trunks, but on a much smaller and more stable scale. It can only store non-living objects and it's internal space is roughly twenty cubic meters."
Nova studied the bracelet for a moment, then nodded appreciatively. He brought his hands together in a brief, deliberate clap.
"That is genuinely impressive," he said. "Miniaturizing spatial storage without instability is not something most adults could manage, let alone a student."
Hermione lifted her chin, pride clear in her posture.
Harry smirked. "Careful. If you keep praising her like that, she'll start adding 'genius inventor' to her list of titles."
Hermione turned sharply to glare at him. "I don't need titles to prove anything."
Nova watched their exchange for a second, then shook his head with mild amusement.
"Enough, Flirting" he said. "You are packed, prepared, and on time. That is all I need."
The space around him began to warp as dimensional pressure gathered, the air bending and folding in on itself.
"Next stop," he added calmly, "Black Clover."
-----
The pressure vanished as they stepped out of the portal, replaced by open air and the smell of grass and old stone.
Harry blinked and looked around, instinctively reaching for his wand before remembering it wasn't much use here. They were standing in a wide clearing surrounded by tall, uneven stone pillars, some cracked with age, others leaning slightly as if the earth itself had grown tired of holding them straight.
At the center stood a tall, round tower built from pale stone, its surface worn smooth by time and faintly glowing lines etched into its walls.
Hermione turned slowly, eyes darting everywhere at once. "Okay," she said, voice tight with excitement, "this definitely isn't anywhere near Scotland."
Harry let out a low whistle. "Right. So… where exactly are we?"
Nova answered calmly, hands still in his pockets. "This is the place where you'll both receive your grimoires."
That got their full attention.
Hermione spun toward him so fast she nearly tripped. "Our grimoires? You mean—now? Here?"
Harry's grin broke out before he could stop it. "You said grimoires were personal. Like… bonded to you."
"They are," Nova replied. "Which is why this matters."
Harry exchanged a quick look with Hermione. They both knew what this meant. Gaining a grimoire means gaining a new magic, a magic that is unique to them. Alright they would be in a debt to Nova but getting a Grimoire is still very worth it.
Hermione's fingers curled slightly at her side. "We'll owe you for this."
"Yes," Nova smiled.
Harry shrugged after a second. "Worth it."
Hermione nodded immediately. "Completely worth it."
Nova turned and started toward the tower. "Then let's not waste time."
They followed him inside.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the air changed. The inside of the tower opened into a vast circular hall that stretched far higher than it looked from outside. Tall shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, each packed with grimoires of every color, thickness, and condition imaginable.
Some looked pristine, others old and battered. Soft light filtered down from high above, illuminating floating motes of mana drifting lazily through the space.
Harry slowed despite himself. "Bloody hell…"
Hermione's breathing quickened. "There are… hundreds. No—thousands."
"More," Nova said. "Most will never be chosen."
They stepped further in, their footsteps echoing faintly. The hall felt quiet, not empty, like a library where the books were aware of who walked between them.
Hermione opened her mouth, clearly about to ask a dozen questions at once—
And then the light shifted.
From opposite shelves, two books started to glow and then slid free, lifting into the air as if guided by invisible hands. They drifted forward slowly, stopping a few feet in front of them.
The first hovered before Hermione. Its cover was a deep, earthy brown, smooth and unmarked except for a silver three-leaf clover etched neatly into the center.
The second moved toward Harry, heavier in presence, its cover a muted purple. A faint chill radiated from it, not painful, just cold enough to notice. The clover on its cover looked pale, almost frosted.