Ivan, You Liar!

"Tens of thousands of Galleons?" Isiah stared at Ivan in astonishment. It was a large sum of money, more than the wizarding shops of two years ago could have saved in years.

"Yes! Part of it I earned from the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, who is a complete fraud!" Ivan exclaimed.

"That Lockhart?" Alicia was intrigued. She had read about Lockhart in the Daily Prophet a few days ago, but she hadn't really read it.

Yvonne nodded. "But it's too long a story, so let's talk about it as we go along! It starts when I saw Lockhart at the bookshop…"

"Well, we'll talk on the way!" Alicia smiled and took Ivan's hand, listening to him as they walked towards the exit.

Yvonne talked slowly about her school years, from seeing Harry and Ron driving the Magic Car on the train to winning the Quidditch World Cup…

Ivan went into a lot of detail.

This was something Ivan had wanted to share with Alicia when he got home from school last year, but he hadn't had the chance to do so…

In the distance, Hermione watched the mother and son walk out of the station hand in hand, wearing the Invisibility Cloak. She felt a little emotional. This was the first time she had seen Ivan smile so happily in this school year…

Hermione chuckled and prepared to hurry after him.

At that moment, an all-too-familiar voice rang out from somewhere behind them.

"Ivan, Harry and Ron, don't forget to write to me over the summer!"

Hermione turned to see a brown-haired young witch waving to her friends at the nine-and-three-quarters stop, her eyes fixed on one of the boys.

"Of course, I promise!" The blond boy laughed, and the brown-haired witch followed her father away, satisfied.

Hermione, who was under the Invisibility Cloak, watched this scene in a daze, then pouted and snorted unhappily.

"Liar!"

However, seeing the blond boy standing there looking around, Hermione was reminded that she had been expecting a letter from Ivan all summer, and she smiled. "It's about time you waited!"

"Oh… they can't have gone far, can they?" Hermione exclaimed when she turned back to find Ivan and Alicia long gone from the station.

Shortly after Hermione's departure, the young witches and wizards who had been laughing along with their parents on Platform Nine and Three-quarters were left alone.

The blond boy frowned as he stared at the empty station, lost in thought.

Where was Alicia? Why hadn't she come?

Was she held up by something?

The more the blond boy thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. He wanted to go back on his own, but he was worried that he would miss Alicia.

Forget it, I'll wait a little longer…

…

"So Lockhart was a Memory Charm Master? Made famous by stealing other people's stories?"

As they walked through the busy streets of London, Isiah was surprised to hear about Lockhart.

"Yeah," Ivan said, smiling as he recounted some of the funny things that had happened to Lockhart at school.

"When I learned his secret, Lockhart begged me to make him some magical objects so that he could cast a spell or two without being seen through."

"And? How much did you charge him?" Alicia was curious.

"First time, twenty-five hundred Galleons!" Ivan said.

"The first time?" Alicia looked puzzled.

"Of course, so there's a second time." Ivan told Alicia about Lockhart's death-seeking attempt to challenge the Heads of House at the Duelling Club, and how he had ended up begging for it.

Isia was speechless at this. How did a flashy and self-aware person like Lockhart manage to disguise himself for so many years?

"I always knew your headmaster was crazy, or else he wouldn't have found someone like him to take Defence Against the Dark Arts," said Isiah unhappily.

Ivan rolls his eyes, thinking that Dumbledore is simply useless.

After all, Voldemort's Defence Against the Dark Arts class had been going on for many years, and some of the most brilliant wizards in the wizarding world had either taken up this position or had heard some nasty rumours.

Snape was probably the only one left in the wizarding world who was capable and interested in this position!

Yvonne believes that Dumbledore is probably aware of the curse and thus has been avoiding Snape for this position…

However, this information was not something that Ivan would discuss with Alicia, as he had deliberately avoided discussing his fight with Tom Riddle during the first year of school.

Just so as not to worry Alicia too much…

"By the way, Mom, what happened to the werewolf wizards in Knockturn Alley? Are they okay?" Ivan asked suddenly.

"Them? Same old, same old, same old," said Alicia, who had done a cursory background check on the werewolves after Ivan left.

It was indeed as the werewolf leader had said. He had done poorly on the European continent and had been forced to flee.

"Why do you ask?" Alicia asked suspiciously.

"It's just strange that they never sent me a letter…" Ivan began.

He recalled that at the end of his first year's summer vacation, he had asked some werewolf wizards to help him gather information about the alley, but he had not received a single letter for the entire school year.

Logically speaking, with so many Dark Wizards in Knockturn Alley and planning an attack on Alicia, they should have noticed…

"I told them not to bother you!" said Alicia, reaching out to pat Ivan on the head. "Since you're at school, you should just concentrate on your studies! It's just trivial stuff, so I'll take care of it. What are you worried about?"

Ivan's face betrayed his frustration. He had been thinking about this for a while, but then he realized that it was Alicia who had blocked all the messages from the werewolf wizards.

However, Ivan was able to tell from Alicia's words that she was not ignorant of Burke's plans to deal with her, although it was clear that she did not take them seriously enough, at least not enough to know that Burke would have someone attack the Dark Arts shop today.

Otherwise, the werewolf wizards would have been visible near the Wizarding Shop, and Alicia would not have been so calm…