"So, what exactly are you looking for?"
Lupin finally returned to a normal line of questioning, which made Ian secretly breathe a sigh of relief. As he moved away from the bed, he pulled the blanket down a bit to cover the space underneath.
Lupin noticed this gesture but didn't think much of it. After all, when he was a wanderer, he had a whole suitcase full of animated wizarding magazines.
The Muggle ones, like Daily Girls or whatever, never really appealed to him.
"I told you... It's the symbol of my identity."
Ian resumed his search and finally found what he'd been looking for in an old shoebox, a keychain shining with a gaudy golden glint. Even though the gold paint was flaking off in places, the industrial-grade coating still gave it a sheen even shinier than real gold.
"Now this is the vibe!"
With Lupin staring in confusion, Ian attached all his keys to the keychain and clipped it proudly to the most visible spot on his belt.
Clink! Clank! Jingle!
Ian then began strutting energetically around the room. The noise from his waist was loud and eye-catching, and his look of smug satisfaction made Lupin want to smack him.
"You look like a nouveau riche."
Lupin commented, clearly exasperated.
"I am nouveau riche," Ian replied sincerely, leaving Lupin completely speechless. That level of honesty really was disarming. Lupin wanted to complain more but suddenly didn't know where to start.
"You're... surprisingly honest."
That was all Lupin could manage to say, rather dryly.
"You're the first person to see my inner qualities. Great insight. The wolfsbane potion you need for tonight? It's on me." Ian's main goal was to make sure Lupin didn't lose control and hurt anyone at the orphanage. Even though he had seen a specially reinforced cage in Lupin's room, he still didn't want Lupin risking it by drinking some dodgy "fizzy wolfsbane soda."
Emphasis on "fizzy."
"It's already too late to brew it now, isn't it?" Lupin said, though his eyes betrayed interest. He looked conflicted, not just because brewing now would take too long, but because he also suspected Ian might sneak some "experimental" ingredient into the potion.
Not that Lupin was a coward.
He was from Gryffindor, after all.
It was just… those entries in that werewolf modification project diary had seriously unsettled him.
"Of course I've got a finished one. Otherwise I wouldn't tolerate you staying in my house," Ian said as he pulled a bottle of decently effective wolfsbane potion from his money pouch.
This particular potion was from the fifth time loop. After noticing a serious decline in ingredient potency, Ian had brewed a batch intending to sell them in Knockturn Alley.
Naturally...
Even though the potion's effectiveness had dropped, it was still genuine potion. The crooks in Diagon Alley had taught Ian a lesson or two, his understanding of scammers had leveled up.
"Although this isn't as good as the ones my uncle brews, it's still better than what those so-called certified shops in Diagon Alley sell. They water theirs down with stuff like Draught of Peace to pad the volume."
Ian understood well: no business without deception. Even the official stores cut corners, just a little less obviously. Or they used ingredients just shy of expiring.
So in a way, his potions, made from expired ingredients, weren't that different from theirs. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
"I'll figure out a way to pay you," Lupin said, after a moment of visible inner struggle. In the end, his need for wolfsbane won out over his pride.
He had no choice.
Even if he transformed in some remote place, he could still end up hurting an innocent person. And around London, there weren't many remote places to begin with.
A lot of werewolves broke psychologically because of this, wracked with guilt after accidentally hurting someone, eventually spiraling into mental instability and madness.
That's one reason so many wizards believed all werewolves were lunatics.
"You think I look like someone who needs money?" Faced with Lupin's stingy attitude, Ian instantly struck a classic "Dragon King smirk," shaking the massive keychain on his hip so it jingled proudly.
"..."
Lupin, the type who felt guilty accepting favors and awkward about debts, twitched at the corner of his mouth and held back his urge to retort, more and more convinced that Snape's nephew didn't act like a Ravenclaw at all.
Granted…
There were boastful Ravenclaws, but their kind of pride was a world apart from Ian's. Ian's particular brand of flaunting reminded Lupin of the Slytherins he couldn't stand.
But then…
Looking at the wolfsbane potion in his hand…
"Well, to be fair, you don't see many Slytherins with this kind of generosity," Lupin subconsciously started defending Ian in his mind, maybe unnecessarily so.
That's just how Gryffindors were.
They might dislike certain types of people or groups, but they never denied a helping hand. That's why Lupin found Ian's personality not exactly unpleasant, just a little hard to adjust to at first.
"All right. Now that you've taken another one of my potions, you owe me a ride to Diagon Alley," Ian said bluntly, the moment Lupin pocketed the wolfsbane.
That made Lupin pause.
"Going to check on your shop?"
He could practically see Ian swaggering down the street, showing off.
"I won't sleep tonight unless I go. You've never struck it rich like this, so you wouldn't understand how it feels," Ian replied with such heartfelt sincerity that Lupin immediately wanted to take back every nice thought he'd just had.
Sometimes, this little wizard really was too much… And yet, because it was the truth, Lupin couldn't help but feel a sting of bitterness.
"Don't you have a phoenix?" Lupin wasn't unwilling to take Ian to Diagon Alley, he was just wondering why Ian didn't use a more efficient method.
"My phoenix can only take me to places it's already been. And it's only a few months old. Clearly, it's never been to Diagon Alley." Ian gave an exaggerated shrug.
"No wonder it screeches so weirdly," Lupin muttered. He'd never actually seen a baby phoenix, so he just assumed that's why Ian's phoenix sounded so… disturbing.
"There's a fireplace in my room."
After glancing again at the jingling keychain on Ian's waist, Lupin gave his answer without hesitation. But his response left the little wizard rather confused.
"Our orphanage can use the Floo Network?" Ian asked, clearly surprised. After all, the Floo Network wasn't just something you could access freely, it required a formal application and strict approval.
Not only that, but regular payments were necessary to maintain the connection. Ian seriously doubted someone who couldn't even afford decent clothes had the spare funds to keep up with Floo Network fees.
"Of course it can."
Lupin replied as he led Ian away from the ominous room, which Lupin still didn't understand the danger of, and toward a room he had carefully selected and cleaned for days in preparation.
"In fact, you're not the first student from this orphanage to go to Hogwarts. The last one who left here had exceptional talent."
"He modified the room he lived in and, by some illegal means, managed to connect it to the Floo Network, allowing access to a specific shop in Knockturn Alley."
Lupin explained the background, though he didn't reveal the student's identity as Voldemort. Maybe he didn't want to burden Ian with unnecessary psychological pressure.
He could be thoughtful like that, sometimes.
((To Be Continued…))
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