Four days later, a weary Howl slowly dragged himself out of the basement.
His eyes were deeply shadowed, his beard hung low, and the hair on his face was matted.
"You're finally out. I thought you'd died down there," Lucifer said indifferently.
Howl scoffed, "You wouldn't understand. The sense of accomplishment from studying magic is unparalleled. Even if Merlin himself came, he would be completely immersed in it, unable to extricate himself!"
After speaking, he looked around, "Where's Harry?"
"He's outside fixing things for people," Lucifer replied. "Four days ago, a woman's lawnmower broke, and Harry went to help. After he fixed it, his reputation as a little repair expert spread throughout the entire street."
Lucifer chuckled, "He dug up a set of repair tools from who knows where, dressed up professionally, and then went to people's homes to fix things with magic."
Howl paused, then nodded. He took a whole leg of lamb from the kitchen, quickly prepared it, and handed it to Lucifer.
"Roast this meat for me. Remember to flip it."
"You... I, a dignified demon, have been turned into a meat-roasting machine by you..."
Howl fell silent for a moment, then turned and walked towards the second floor, "Don't look down on yourself so much. Oh, and help me boil some water too!"
Lucifer watched Howl's retreating figure, feeling a surge of profanity wanting to escape. However, just as he was about to roar in frustration, the Moonlight Fortress's door suddenly opened...
Half an hour later, Howl slowly came downstairs. After a shower, he felt completely refreshed. He picked up the fragrant roasted lamb leg from the fire and went to the dining table.
"By the way, who came just now?"
Lucifer glanced at Howl, grumbling, "Who else but Harry? Would I allow anyone else to enter here?"
"What if you, like Kalsifer, let some old hag into the Castle for no reason?" Howl said with a smile.
"If we ever go back, I'll tell Sophie what you just said," Lucifer said gleefully.
"You don't think Sophie is some fierce woman, do you? Alright, I'll tell her," Howl said, taking a bite of lamb and looking at Lucifer with a half-smile.
"Really?" Lucifer was stunned for a moment. Thinking closely, his words did seem to imply that, and he quickly waved his hand, "What?! No, don't tell Sophie! I was wrong, okay!"
But after saying that, Lucifer felt something was off. He seemed to have been tricked.
"No, you're playing me!"
Watching Lucifer's expression, Howl laughed.
Is that all?
Just then, the door suddenly opened, and Harry stood outside, holding a basketball-sized cardboard box.
Howl paused, then turned to look at Lucifer.
Lucifer nodded, "That's right, he came in, then saw me roasting meat, and rushed out without saying a word..."
"Uncle Howl!" Harry greeted enthusiastically, walking in with the box.
He said with shining eyes, "I thought it would be many more days before you came out."
"Then I would have starved to death," Howl waved his hand, "You might be like this someday too, of course, assuming you can maintain your passion for magic."
"Of course I can!" Harry nodded confidently.
"Perhaps," Howl smiled, "But as far as I'm concerned, even with something as miraculous as magic, after prolonged exposure, people's perception of it gradually dulls, leading to it becoming mundane.
At least from my current observation of the present Wizarding World, most people have been confined to a normal, mundane, and arrogant way of thinking.
Honestly, I think it's quite foolish for a Wizard to struggle for three meals a day. Clearly possessing the ability to influence the very essence of the world, yet only..."
Howl shook his head, deciding it was better to change the subject, "What's in the box?"
"Oh, right," Harry snapped out of Howl's previous words and opened the box. Inside was a chocolate cake.
"Uncle Howl, you don't know yet, but I've earned quite a few tips helping people fix things on the street these past two days!" Harry quickly recounted his recent activities, a touch of pride in his voice.
"So... it's your birthday?" Howl looked at the cake, then at Harry.
Harry quickly shook his head, "No, my birthday... was quite a few days ago. But I really wanted a cake, so I..."
"This is a cake from Mulley's Bakery. Uncle Howl, you must try it," Harry changed the subject, introducing, "It's a shame they didn't have chocolate mousse cake. Uncle Howl, have you tried it? It's really good."
Howl suddenly understood, watching Harry fumbling to open the cake box. He didn't know what expression to make, finally smiling helplessly:
"That's good. I haven't tried it yet."
"Then next time I save enough money, we'll order in advance!"
"Okay."
...
Harry ate heartily, with cake in his left hand and lamb leg in his right, his mouth glistening with oil. Finally, he looked up and asked, "Uncle Howl, are you going back to the basement after dinner?"
"No," Howl shook his head, waving his hand in the air to draw a trajectory.
"This symbol is something I deciphered from Thales's manuscript. It should represent moisture. Currently, it appears to be a component structure of magical runes like [Storm] and [Sea]."
"So..." Harry imitated Howl's trajectory with his hand in the air.
"When you have a certain sensitivity to magical runes and their corresponding laws, you can perceive some changes in the surrounding environment.
Through it, I foresee a storm tonight."
Harry immediately understood what Howl was going to do and became nervous, "So you're going to become an Animagus tonight?"
Howl nodded, "After waiting all these days, it's finally here."
Harry looked at the gloomy sky, a little worried. According to books, the process of becoming an Animagus was very dangerous, potentially leading to death or becoming a mindless beast...
After dinner, Harry cleaned up the scraps and took the plates to the kitchen, beginning repeated uses of [Scourgify].
Before long, all the kitchenware was sparkling clean.
Howl watched all of this, then averted his gaze. He turned, opened the door, and walked to the edge of the cliff.
The sky was dark now, heavy dark clouds pressed down, as if about to descend upon the earth, and the storm even made Howl's clothes flap wildly.
Splat.
Howl's nose felt damp, and large raindrops began to fall.
It's starting!
Harry stood inside the door at some point, sitting on the steps of the entrance. Lucifer also brought over a brazier and lay there.
Even more unexpectedly, Meteor also stood by the door, watching Howl outside.
"You can see?" Lucifer looked suspiciously at the broom next to Harry. The broom dared not get too close to him, fearing it would catch fire.
Creak, creak—
Meteor's broom head bent repeatedly, clearly nodding.