By the second to last week of school, Julian had finally settled on his choice by weighing which mentor offered the rarest opportunity. In the end, he chose Ollivander, since he genuinely needed knowledge of veritology for his ring wraith project. It also helped that he was fairly certain Ollivander would have no objection to Julian taking time away to arrange Sirius's release. If Julian was judging correctly, the wandmaker's application had likely been submitted out of interest in gathering information about his wand rather than about Julian himself.
Ollivander, if nothing else, was utterly devoted to his craft, and that was something Julian could respect as a craftsman in his own right. McGonagall raised an eyebrow when he turned in his decision, especially considering the other options open to him, but she did not comment. After that, Julian had nothing especially urgent left to deal with, so he simply took the chance to relax. On the day before school was due to end, he stored away all the tools he might need over the summer holiday, including his furnace and several metals, before going over his friends' summer plans one last time.
Harry would be staying with the Weasleys over the break, while everyone else was heading back to their own families. Daphne and Tracy intended to relax and do little beyond their assigned homework during that time, and Harry and Ron were planning much the same. Hermione, meanwhile, was going to France on holiday with her parents and intended to visit that country's magical community as well. Julian earned several strange looks when he explained that his own summer would mostly be spent studying and dealing with various matters.
"That sounds bloody exhausting. Aren't you planning to take a break at all?" Ron asked, concerned.
"No. I've got far too much on my plate to sit around and relax right now, what with needing to rebuild the finances and political standing of my family that was, until recently, effectively extinct. Not to mention just how much I have to catch up on in that regard as well, because it turns out being functionally extinct for a thousand years does, in fact, leave you massively out of date in a few ways," Julian said casually with a shrug.
The whole group grimaced at the thought of the workload waiting for him. "I don't envy you at all," Daphne said honestly, and the rest nodded in agreement.
Julian only grinned and laughed. "Just wait and see while I brush a thousand years of dust from my name and let its radiance shine across the world," he said in a proud, determined tone.
Tracy rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, you're so incredible that none of us lowly mortals can even dare stand in your presence," she replied sarcastically, making everyone laugh.
...
On the final day, Julian woke to find that his luggage trunk was missing from the foot of his bed, but he did not panic because he knew the house elves had already taken it down to the carriages. He got up and dressed in the spare pair of jeans and blue t shirt he had stored inside Greed, though they were a bit tight now because of how much he had grown over the course of the school year. A quick bit of transfiguration solved that problem, leaving him comfortable and fully covered.
No one else was awake yet, since it was still dawn, so Julian slipped quietly out of the dormitory. In the common room, he activated the house elf calling bust, summoning one of the wrinkled, floppy eared little servants to him.
"I need about ten loaves of lembas bread for the summer. Could you help me get them before I leave?" he asked politely.
"Sir Ravenclaw can leave it to Tinky!" the house elf replied eagerly and respectfully before vanishing from the common room.
Julian was a little surprised that none of the elves had noticed he himself had mostly become an elf by this point, but Celebrimbor had a theory about that. According to him, it was possible that the elves of this world had absolutely nothing to do with the kind of elf Julian was becoming. Because of that, the house elves simply treated him like a student from one of the founder families, which was to say slightly better than they treated everyone else.
Knowing he would not get in trouble for it today, Julian openly left the common room and began wandering through the castle so he could take in the sights one last time before being away for a long while. Naturally, he made sure to stop by the workshop and collect Steve as well, since the little troublemaker would be leaving Hogwarts with him. Helena had already made her way toward the train by then, since she was technically sneaking out.