Chapter 87: Troubling news
Two days passed since the Quidditch World Cup and Tom spent all of them adjusting the two suitcases to his and Natasha's neutral mana rather than wizarding one. It was a tough job that needed a lot of detailed touches but he had finally finished it.
He had spent two whole days just for slight changes in the items' workings.
If he wanted to reverse engineer them, he would probably be at it for months even with his Sacred Gear simply because the creator himself had no idea how the item actually worked.
It was an unexpected downside of his Sacred Gear and Tom was almost amused by it.
Comprehending the workings of the Evil Pieces was much easier simply because their creator knew how they were supposed to work and why they were supposed to work in that particular manner.
But these suitcases?
Just like every space expansion spell in the wizarding world, it was not based on the wizards' understanding of space but instead came out of a copious amount of experimenting. Bluntly speaking, wizards knew the method they discovered worked this way but they had no idea why.
And because they themselves didn't really know the intricacies behind their lucky spatial manipulation method, Tom's Sacred Gear could not reveal it to him.
That... was ridiculously stupid.
In that case, why would his Sacred Gear reveal to him how devil bloodlines worked in the first place!?
He really had no idea how that worked but...
After pondering about it for an hour, Tom just shrugged and gave up. The situation was what it was. There was no reason to be sad because of it. He just had to exploit it to his best abilities and accept the small limitations it imposed on him.
Whatever...
Still, Vision was extremely useful for refitting the two suitcases to be used with neutral mana. Without it, Tom could have messed up many times along the way, probably even permanently destroying these items.
Tom knew it was not how his Sacred Gear was intended to be used by the big G, but damn it was a great crafting helper.
Both his portable laboratory and Natasha's portable garden were finished and the suitcases that held them still had a copious amount of space free inside. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com
Newt Scamander made his suitcase into a preserve full of endangered magical species and the suitcases in Tom's hands were not all that different. They held enough space to have an entire city built in them. A garden and a laboratory couldn't cover even one-hundredth of it.
Neither knew what exactly was in the Daily Prophet yet but if it gave Hermione this kind of confidence, Tom wasn't looking forward to it, considering what rubbish the entire wizarding press was.
"Only the last five sentences are different." Tom sighed, "Apparently, Hermione's head of house from her school wants to meet us since we are now acting defacto in loco parents for her. The meeting will be next Wednesday here in the Leaky Cauldron." He added, thinking it was frankly rude.
He knew that McGonagal probably had a tight schedule but not even asking if they were free? The woman totally treated them as if they were some muggles...
Well, nothing he could do about that so his eyes fell upon the accursed newspaper.
Knowing the more he delays it, the more anxious he will be, Tom took the Daily Prophet and started reading... before instantly scowling the second he saw the headline.
Just from that, his day was ruined and his plans significantly derailed. Hell, if he didn't act quickly, their entire position could implode on itself in this community!
Nevertheless, he continued to silently read until he was finished. He then wearily sighed and handed the newspaper to the very curious Natasha and beckoned her to read it herself.
Tom really wasn't in the mood to explain what was happening.
Natasha read the article, her face growing less and less amused and more and more expressionless by the second and when she finished, she gently put the newspaper on the table, her eyes heavy as she looked at Tom, "What are we going to do?"
Even if she didn't know much about the Wizarding Society, she understood that this was an extremely serious matter. Hermione only sent them the newspaper as proof of her opinion being right but by doing so, she inadvertently warned them of a possible catastrophe ahead of time.
Neither of them had a subscription to the Daily Prophet so at best they would find out when it was too late.
In a way, this was a perfect move against them in the current situation.
"I was banking on Fudge's greed but I guess Malfoy's home advantage holds true. A real pity. To think he would gamble like this..." Tom ruefully said before his disappointed brown orbs looked Natasha straight into her shining green eyes full of seriousness, "I am sorry, Natalia. It looks like your talents will be required sooner rather than later, after all."
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Author Note:
Ha! Not telling you what's going on. Just wait for the next chapter!
The joys of being the author...