'That works?'
Ivan was speechless as he watched Fred and Angelina snuggle up to each other, and wondered if Fred was just pretending to advertise their new fee.
Harry was moved by this; a Galleon didn't seem too expensive…
After dinner, they returned to the Gryffindor Lounge together.
As they walked down a corridor, Ivan remembered that he had to practice Legilimency with Luna today.
"Harry, Hermione, why don't you go back? I just remembered that I have something to do! I'll come back to the dormitory later."
Hermione watched Ivan leave, then turned to Harry thoughtfully and asked, "Is Ivan busy?"
"I don't know, but sometimes in the evening I can't find him…" Harry said, shaking his head.
… .
"Telekinesis!"
On the eighth floor, in a quiet classroom, Ivan waved his wand again as thoughts rushed into Luna's head.
The scene in memory is in the Ravenclaw lounge.
Ivan watched in silence as several Ravenclaw girls played tricks on Luna, pulling out her painstakingly planted dirigible and throwing it into the ground, or hiding a piece of clothing she fancied…
They were trivial things, but they occurred very often in his memory, and Ivan, with his accumulated anger, asked angrily when he had left the memory.
"Do they always treat you like this?"
"Not often. At least they've stopped teasing me this year." Luna shook her head, then looked at Ivan and said lightly, "I think they'll come around after a while!"
Yvonne sighed, not knowing what to make of Luna's naivety, but going along with it.
"Yes, I'm sure they will!"
He decided to have a good talk with Luna's roommates sometime so that they could reflect on themselves.
Having made her decision, and seeing that it was getting late, Ivan gave up on the idea of continuing with his magic practice and left the empty classroom with Luna.
Along the way, Ivan opened the system to check on the progress of his magic practice. With Luna's help, his Legilimency had reached Level Five.
As a result, his proficiency with the spell had been growing more and more slowly over the last few days when he used it on Luna.
With this in mind, Ivan suggested that Luna try to fight him in the next practice.
It is difficult to gain proficiency in Legilimency if one is too submissive.
"These are my notes on Occlumency. You can take a look at them when you have time." Yvonne took a thick book out of the extended spell and handed it to Luna.
Luna reached for it and was about to say something when Ivan suddenly turned and looked down the corridor.
"What's wrong?" Luna asked curiously, turning her gaze in the same direction but seeing nothing.
"I think someone was following us…" Ivan said uncertainly.
Could it be Crouch? This possibility suddenly occurred to Ivan. The most likely person to be following him was a spy sent by Lord Voldemort.
"Do you know who?"
Luna's disembodied voice echoed down the corridor again.
"No, we don't know yet. In any case, let's meet somewhere else in the future!" Ivan said cautiously, although it seemed to him that Voldemort's spy would not reveal his identity until he had achieved his goal.
Luna nodded in agreement.
"And thank you for the past few days…" Yvonne said sheepishly, turning to Luna.
"I'm glad we can help. We're friends, aren't we?" Luna said wistfully.
"Well, yeah!" Ivan laughed.
After saying goodbye to Luna, Ivan walked alone down the aisle of the castle and checked the Marauder's Map solemnly.
— Crouch was in the staff office, and Moody was in the Great Hall. Judging from the time, they were not the ones following him.
There is, of course, the possibility that Crouch managed to slip back into his office in a matter of seconds via a special secret passage.
Ivan scanned the rest of the castle for suspicious names, but decided against it. He put the Marauder's Map away and put the matter out of his mind. He would have to make time to visit Norbert today.
… .
The Forbidden Forest, inside the dragon enclosure
Charlie, who had just fed the dragons dinner, did not have time to rest before he saw Ivan walking towards them from the entrance to the paddock.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he greeted her with a laugh.
"Ivan, what brings you here? To see Norbert?" Charlie asked with a smile.
"Well, that's one way to put it," Ivan replied casually, and then asked solemnly, "By the way, Charlie, when do you plan to transport the dragons back?"
"After a while, they're not easy to deal with, and it's always a hassle to carry them on a long flight, and we nearly got caught by Muggles on this trip! So we're going to ask the Ministry for an international Portkey to get them straight to Romania!"
As Charlie talked, he complained to Ivan that the cross-border transportation required layers of approval, and that it would take over a month to transport the dragons.
Ivan nodded, secretly relieved. One of the prerequisites for blood fusion was that it had to be fresh, no more than three days out of body.
This was why he was in such a hurry to find Charlie to find out when they were leaving.
Now it seemed he would have more time than he thought.
"Charlie, please let me know when you're leaving. I'd like to say goodbye to Norbert for the last time," Ivan begged Charlie.
"No problem, don't worry…" Charlie agreed without hesitation, since it was not against the rules.
"Come on, I'll show you Norbert!" Charlie grabbed Ivan's arm and pulled him to one side of the paddock, talking about Ivan's spectacular performance the day before.
"You know, I used to dream of fighting a dragon head-on, and this year's Triwizard Cup, you did exactly what I wanted to do the most." Charlie gestured excitedly with his hands.
Then, as if remembering something, Charlie lowered his voice and said tentatively, "Of course, I think Norbert played a good role too. You both did a great job!"
"You do?" Yvonne asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"I'm a professional when it comes to dragons…" Charlie said with a shrug and a smile. "After that match, I examined Norbert's injuries and saw that he'd only suffered superficial injuries, which you can't knock out a dragon with."
"But don't worry, I've covered for you, and I'm the only one who knows about your relationship with Norbert! No one else will suspect a thing…"