The next morning, Ivan woke up yawning.
After opening the curtains and looking at the clear sky, Ivan's tense mood completely relaxed.
"What should we do today again?"
Ivan was having a hard time adjusting to the sudden break in his schedule. He had been busy for the past few months, but he had let go of his burden today. Other than brewing a truth-telling potion later, he did not seem to have anything else on his mind.
Crack …
The closed door opened, and Ivan turned to see Hermione outside, greeting him cheerfully.
"Ivan, come out and eat!"
"Yes, of course!" Yvonne smiled and nodded as she and Hermione left.
Along the way, Ivan asked Hermione about the state of the Time-Turner and told her to let him know when it was heating up.
When the Time-Turner's power failed, it kicked the user back to their original point of time, although the location would not change, meaning they would return to Knockturn Alley three months later.
Ivan was perfectly capable of protecting himself, but it was dangerous for Hermione to be alone in Knockturn Alley.
Outside in the hall, Furlen, Walker, and the others were eating breakfast in chairs. Several werewolf wizards were boasting about how they had killed everyone in the Wizarding Shop the day before, causing laughter.
When he saw Ivan approaching, Walker waved a greeting and Ivan nodded, then glanced around, surprised to see no sign of Doggett.
"Where is Doggett?"
"He went to the Ministry early in the morning to get information from some friends," Alicia explained as she placed a bowl of corn porridge and bacon and eggs on the table.
Ivan was right. After everything that had happened the night before, he needed to find out what was going on, in case something went wrong.
And so, over breakfast, Ivan chatted idly with Alicia about what had happened at Knockturn Alley when he got back to school, and occasionally told her interesting stories about his time at school.
Hermione sometimes added a comment or two.
As she spoke, Ivan noticed that Hermione and Alicia were chatting happily and pushed him aside.
The most frustrating thing for Ivan was that they mostly talked about themselves.
Alicia questioned Hermione frequently, perhaps wanting to learn more about his life at Hogwarts.
Hermione proudly recounts how, in her first year, Ivan killed a troll that was about to attack her, defeated Professor Chino on a dragon, and saved the Keeper of the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid…
The little witch's cheeks were pink, and she was generous with her praise, mentioning that many of her professors considered her the best student ever…
Ivan, who was listening, felt embarrassed, and then suddenly remembered that he had never mentioned many of the things Hermione had said to Alicia, so he quickly coughed and interrupted her.
"What is it, Ivan?" Hermione asked, turning to face him.
Yvonne raised her eyebrows and gave Hermione a knowing look, telling her to just say something funny and not mention anything too dangerous…
Hermione blinked blankly, unable to understand what Yvonne was trying to say, and Yvonne was about to make it more obvious when the spoon hit her on the head.
Ivan covered his head with his hands and realised that Alicia was glaring at him with a warning look in her eyes. Ivan sighed and ate his food.
Hermione gave Ivan an uneasy look. She was clever enough to guess what Ivan and Alicia were up to, and she seemed to have said something she shouldn't have.
After glaring at Ivan, a smile returned to Isiah's face.
"Leave him alone! We'll talk about ours, so go on. What happened? How did you deal with the three-headed dog? Did you get the stone?"
The last time Ivan came to Hogwarts, he told her that she would be safe there reading, listening to classes, bickering with her fellow students, but he never mentioned anything about trolls, dragons, or three-headed dogs!
As the young witch stammered her way through Alicia's interrogation, Ivan felt a tug on the corner of his wizarding robe, and when he looked, he saw Walker.
"Hales, have you ever actually ridden a dragon? Was it fierce-looking? Fire-breathing? How did you tame it?" Walker asked excitedly.
Flan and the others looked at Ivan with equal curiosity, not because of the dragon, but because Ivan's experience at Hogwarts was so legendary that it was hard to imagine a first-year wizard going through so much.
However, they could not bring themselves to question Ivan's actions, as he had done even more outrageous things in the past few days. In comparison, taming a dragon and killing a troll was nothing.
Ivan recalled training Norbert to extract dragon blood and shook his head in amusement.
"Actually, there's nothing special about a dragon. You can just find a large lizard and enlarge its wings a little. As for training a dragon… Well, it's actually not that difficult. If it's disobedient, you can just beat it up and feed it some grilled fish…"
Walker suspected that Ivan was not fooling him, but he had heard that dragons were powerful and ill-tempered creatures that were difficult to tame…
When he heard Ivan talk about the many interesting things that had happened to him while he was raising Norbert at Hogwarts, Walker dismissed his doubts and spoke with emotion.
"If only I could have got into Hogwarts!"
Walker was envious of Ivan's wonderful schoolyard life and looked forward to it, but after thinking about it, he said self-deprecatingly, "But I don't suppose they recruit werewolves, do they?"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that! I know of a werewolf wizard who graduated from Hogwarts and made a few good friends there," Ivan said with a smile.
This was one of the many things he admired about Dumbledore, as the elderly Dumbledore was truly able to treat any student without discrimination, as exemplified by Draco Malfoy.
Dumbledore knew then that Draco and his parents were Death Eaters, and that Malfoy Senior had been deliberately picking on him over the years.
Even so, Dumbledore tried to save Draco Malfoy's soul at the end of his life, believing that Draco was not inherently evil.
"Are you serious?" Walker asked in disbelief. As far as he knew, no school was willing to accept a werewolf as a student. He had been able to attend Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry because he had deliberately concealed his identity. When he was exposed, he was immediately expelled.
"Of course!" Ivan nodded, and told Walker about Lupin.
As they were talking, the front door of the house opened and Doggett came in…