"Tsk, you've gotten incredibly strong in ninety years."
The beautiful beach was gone, replaced by a ruin. Looking at the limping Albus, I spoke with dissatisfaction.
Albus truly possessed the skill to be worthy of the title of the strongest wizard of the current era.
I hadn't hit him with the intent to kill, but I had planned on putting him in a wheelchair for a while.
At this rate, he might recover by the time of the entrance ceremony, no matter how long it took.
Albus, who was limping with a stooped back as if he had thrown it out, approached while gasping for breath and said.
"Hah, hah, Sir. How can you say that after seeing the state I'm in."
As he said, Albus was in a rather慘혹한 state.
His neatly arranged silver-white hair was completely disheveled, and his cherished beard had been burnt black and was now unsightly.
His glasses had disappeared somewhere during the battle, and his eyes were bruised a deep blue.
And that wasn't all.
One of his ears had been hit by a Transfiguration spell and was now floppy like a house-elf's, and yellow-striped cat fur was growing on one of his arms.
Strange, web-like organs had sprouted between his fingers, and a large mouse tail was even growing from behind his torn robes.
In a word, it was a mess, as if Peeves had used Albus's body as a canvas to paint a picture.
But so what?
I said nonchalantly.
"Still, it's not like you lost a limb, is it? St. Mungo's will have you fixed up in a month."
"...Yes, to have survived for an hour against you, Sir, is a feat in itself, I suppose."
Albus sighed, saying he had no idea what to tell them at St. Mungo's.
Then, he lifted his face and, with a smile tinged with a very small sense of victory, he said.
"In any case, Sir. You have agreed to return to Hogwarts, have you not?"
"Yes, yes. Ah, but don't expect me to follow all the rules."
Hearing that, he muttered that he hadn't expected it anyway with a gloomy face again. Then, Albus held something out to me.
"Ah, Sir. Here is the key."
"A key? What key."
"It is the key to the Potter family vault."
What's this now. Why are you giving it to me?
Flabbergasted, I said.
"Why are you giving this to me now? You should have given it to Harry long ago."
"But Sir. If I had given that key to Harry, the boy might have spent his entire family fortune for you by now."
...Hmm, he has a point. Considering Harry's kind nature, who had a hard time even using the Crucio, he was more than capable of doing just that.
But that aside.
"So, Albus, are you telling me you thought I would spend Harry's money?"
I resisted the urge to smack Albus, who was rolling his eyes. For some reason, I felt that if I hit him now, he might actually keel over and die.
I sighed and waved my hand.
"Forget it. Just go now."
"Yes, then I shall see you next at Hogwarts."
With a gloomy expression, Albus disappeared with Apparition, heading for St. Mungo's Hospital.
Phew.
Kee-rook?
Ardeura flew over to my side as I was clicking my tongue and cried out.
Reading the mind of an animal, especially a magical creature like a phoenix, was a difficult task even with Legilimency.
But having lived with Ardeura for a long time, I could understand her meaning to some extent.
What Ardeura had just said wasn't exact, but it was a cry filled with a question, something along the lines of, 'That old man is stronger than I thought, huh?'
For Ardeura, who had seen all sorts of wizards, to give such a generous assessment, it seemed Albus had indeed grown well.
Kee-rook!
At Ardeura's insistent cry, I took some dried squid out of my magic pouch and handed it to her.
Ardeura's favorite food was jerky made from Kraken, sourced directly from the Mediterranean. Her taste is even more refined than mine.
I watched Ardeura eat the jerky and thought for a moment.
What do I do with her when I take her to Hogwarts?
Not taking her was, of course, out of the question, and if I took her as she was, she would surely draw too much attention.
If I transformed her into an owl and took her, Ardeura was not the type to stay in an owlery.
Perhaps it would be better to set up my workshop in the Room of Requirement again.
Come to think of it, I wonder if anyone uses the Room of Requirement these days.
As I was pondering this, Deek and Harry, who were looking rather cheerful, approached me.
"Master, if Deek heard correctly, are you going to Hogwarts again?"
"Are you going to enroll at Hogwarts with me, Master?"
I sighed and said.
"Yes, that's what happened."
Hearing my words, Harry broke into a wide grin, and Deek said joyfully.
"Oh, Deek is so happy that Master will be living a regular life again! Master is in his growing years and needs to eat his meals on time!"
I sighed at them, who were just happy, not knowing how I felt.
"Let's go to Diagon Alley to buy your school supplies soon."
Harry's birthday is the day after tomorrow, so I should buy him a birthday present while we're at it.
There is a man here.
A historic family whose name is listed among the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight,' the bloodlines known as the most noble pure-bloods in the wizarding world.
[T/N: The Sacred Twenty-Eight (신성한 28가문): The name of a directory published in the 1930s that listed the twenty-eight British families that were still considered "truly pure-blood."]
Now that the Gaunt and Black families have fallen, the family that can pride itself on being the noblest of all wizards is the Malfoy family.
And this man is the head of that family, Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius Malfoy, who seemed to have not a single worry in the world, had recently, for the past three years, been living a life full of worry and sorrow.
To be precise, ever since that day, July 31st, 1988, three years ago, when the news of the Malfoy family vault's explosion was published in the papers.
Lucius still could not forget that day when he had spat out his tea while reading the newspaper.
In truth, the explosion of the Malfoy family vault was a great loss, but it did not deal a fatal blow to the Malfoy family.
After all, they were the historic Malfoy family, and they had faithfully followed the adage of not putting all their eggs in one basket.
Not only in Gringotts, but also in the underground vault of the Malfoy family manor, numerous artifacts and treasures were stored.
Moreover, they owned various properties, including real estate, not just in the wizarding society but also in the Muggle world, so the loss of a single Gringotts vault would not cause the Malfoy family's influence to wane.
That is, only if the matter had ended there.
Those lowly goblins, not content with failing to properly store his vault, had gone so far as to sue the Malfoy family in return!
The reason was that they had broken a clause in the vault rental contract that stated one should not store items so dangerous as to cause damage to Gringotts.
What's more, what drove Lucius mad was that even he himself did not fully know what was in the Malfoy family vault.
The vault of the Malfoy family, which had been collecting various artifacts for many long years, since before the Ministry of Magic was even established, was full of dark artifacts that even the head of the family, Lucius himself, did not know about!
The traces of immense curses that remained at the accident scene, which Lucius himself had seen, were enough to make even him, deep down, accept that it was the Malfoy family's fault.
However, that was no reason to simply accept the goblins' outrageous demands. Since when did the world operate according to reason?
Naturally, the Malfoy family had connections in the Ministry of Magic's judicial bodies, so this time too, they tried to use a plea bargain to crush the goblins.
What Lucius had overlooked was that the goblins were also extremely desperate.
The fact that the trust in Gringotts, which had not wavered for many long years, had been shaken, had sent the goblins into a frenzy.
The solution the goblins came up with to restore their credibility was to 'shift all responsibility to the Malfoy family.'
The goblins were already deeply integrated into wizarding society. As if to prove this, all the members of the Wizengamot who presided over the case were, of course, clients of Gringotts.
In the end, the final verdict of the Wizengamot was that the responsibility for the Gringotts incident lay entirely with Malfoy.
The Malfoy family was suddenly faced with having to pay an astronomical sum to Gringotts as compensation.
Actually.
Behind the fact that a wizarding family, and the Malfoy family at that, had lost to goblins in a wizarding court, was the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Dumbledore.
Of course, Lucius had no way of knowing this.
In any case, if they were to pay the astronomical compensation demanded by the goblins all at once, the Malfoy family would be left with not even a shell of its former self.
The goblins, as if showing a minimum of mercy, allowed the compensation to be paid in installments over ten years, but to Lucius, it was nothing more than a detestable act.
Thanks to the allowance of installment payments, they were able to maintain a minimum of the family's prestige, but he did not know how long this would be possible.
Lucius, sighing again today, looked around his study in the manor. He didn't know how long he would be able to maintain this manor either.
As Lucius held his head in his hands with a heavy heart, he heard a knock on the door. At this hour, there were only two people who would knock.
In order to show the dignity of the head of the family, Lucius straightened his clothes and said.
"Come in."
And the young doll that appeared there was none other than the young Malfoy, Draco.
Lucius did not want to give any worries to this child who would inherit the future of the family. He was determined to solve this problem in his own generation, no matter what.
Therefore, he had not explained at all what kind of situation the family was in to Draco. In any case, judging by appearances alone, the Malfoy family was still a noble family.
But hearing Draco's next words, Lucius could not help but regret not having explained the family's situation to Draco that day.
"Father! Look at this! The acceptance letter from Hogwarts has arrived! It says I need school supplies. You'll buy me the best things, as befits a Malfoy, won't you?"
And I want a broom, too. They say first-years can't have them, but you're a governor of Hogwarts, so you can lift the regulation, can't you?
Lucius's heart sank as he listened to Malfoy's words.
Ah. Look at the innocent eyes of that clueless child.
He was a precious child who had grown up without ever having been told 'no' in his life.
No matter how much the family's fortunes had declined, they were not so poor that they couldn't buy a single school supply, but to purchase all the items in top quality and even a broom would be a considerable burden.
Unable to tell him the reality of the family's situation, Lucius forced himself to open his mouth and said.
"...Yes, Draco. Let's go to Diagon Alley soon."
Unable to show the pathetic back of a family head, Lucius decided to go to some lengths to protect Draco's innocence.
How long that would be possible, not even Lucius himself knew.
How on earth did the Malfoy family end up like this?
Lucius poured all sorts of curses in his mind towards the abstract culprit whose very existence was unknown.
"Master, what's wrong?"
"No, it's just that my ear is a little itchy."
"Master, Deek thinks it's because you're in your growing years and you're not sleeping at night."
Kee-roo-rook!