For the down-and-out werewolf wizard Lupin, after leaving the magical room of Ian, his sleep throughout the night was broken and fragmented; adding it all up, it didn't even amount to a full hour.
There was simply too much to digest.
Whether it was the series of shocks he had experienced over the past few days or the revelations and interactions with Ian that night, they completely flooded Lupin's mind, which was still struggling to comprehend it all.
Every time he closed his eyes, the scene of the young girl Catherine awakening her magical power would immediately appear before him.
And that wasn't all.
"Even if God forbids it, I will still grant it." The words of Ian continued to echo in his ears. Such soul-shattering statements were destined to be unforgettable for the rest of his life. As a wizard who perhaps had decent grades and magical accomplishments, Lupin still couldn't fathom how a wizard dared to think this way.
Wizards as gods?
Perhaps even the first person who ever said such a thing never truly imagined putting wizards on the same level as gods. Lupin honestly didn't know how to evaluate Ian's statement.
He only knew that even without looking at the entirety of wizard history, someone like himself could only be considered mediocre, so he hardly had the right to judge whether others were too bold or arrogant.
After all…
Not even in Second Year yet, and already possessing such extraordinary strength, even surpassing a young Albus Dumbledore in many aspects, who could say this young man didn't have the right to speak so wildly?
To allow a Squib abandoned by magic to once again embrace it, this alone was a heaven-defying achievement. The facts were right in front of him, and Lupin had no grounds to comment further.
"Twelve years old…"
The downcast werewolf wizard stared at the empty ceiling of the room and let out a soft sigh in the quiet. The slightly bright moonlight outside shone through the window and fell upon his face.
His heart, still shaken and turbulent, was filled with complex emotions. Amid the barks and meows echoing from the orphanage, he felt like he was having a shallow dream while half-awake.
"Line up to register your identity."
"Every person gets to be a wizard."
"If you want to learn magic, just insert this magical disk into your brain, and you'll instantly gain proficiency. For five hundred golden Galleons, you'll master all seven years' worth of classes in one minute."
"Hehehehe... Wizards control the world, but I... I control the wizards."
…
It was a bizarre and fantastical dream.
It was filled with wild, absurd, and chillingly creepy scenes and plotlines. Lupin even dreamed of assembly lines mass-producing artificial wizards.
"No! Even if I can't afford to buy a wizard identity time card, you can't strip away my wizard status! I want to see Dumbledore! I want to see your leader, Ian Prince! When he was little, I even helped him chop vegetables! I've killed chickens for him!"
Amid this frantic shouting and screaming, even though Lupin wasn't dying, he still jolted up from his wooden bed in terror.
The terrifying images vanished like smoke.
The familiar room gave Lupin an unprecedented sense of safety.
Outside the window, a bright sunny morning had arrived. The sky was gently brushed with soft blue watercolor, and a few fluffy white clouds drifted leisurely across it.
The sun was quietly peeking over the horizon. First, blushing with a hint of orange-red, it then generously spilled golden rays across the world, gently awakening the sleeping people.
"So… it was just a dream…" Lupin wiped the sweat from his forehead, gasping and blinking hard. "Thank goodness it was a dream."
With his back drenched in sweat, Lupin recalled the crystal-clear scenes from his dream and couldn't help but feel some lingering fear from the absurd nightmare.
"I guess I really should find a way to save up some money." For the first time, Lupin truly felt the terror of poverty; he couldn't even dream himself into being rich.
Putting aside how accurately Ian' personality had been portrayed in his dream, he felt that the rest of those scenarios were all subconscious manifestations of deep-seated anxiety.
Yes, Lupin wasn't worried that the events in his dream would actually happen, but he knew very clearly that the reason he had such a dream was definitely connected to the series of incidents that had occurred recently.
Especially last night, the inner thoughts of Ian, and the proof of the real existence of the [Squib Magic Power Awakening Potion] were the reasons Lupin believed he had such a nightmare.
They were also why he believed the [Squib Magic Power Awakening Potion] would cause chaos. Even someone as laid-back and Buddhist-minded as him felt subconscious worry, so how could other wizards not harbor anxiety in their hearts?
Other wizards would only be more uneasy and restless than he. True, saving the poor Squibs was a good thing, but who could resist overthinking it?
"If it can save someone, then it probably means it can take away as well… It directly touches upon wizards' deepest fear: the more one prides themselves on their innate gift, the more they dread losing it."
Lupin had no idea that Ian had already created works related to this topic long ago.
He got up, made himself a cup of hot tea, and walked over to the window to let in some air. Even though the weather wasn't cold, this down-and-out werewolf still shivered slightly.
"Whew Whew Whew~"
Lupin leaned his head out of the window to catch his breath.
Outside, the morning light filtered through the sparse leaves, casting overlapping patterns of light and shadow on the ground. Every leaf looked as though it had been edged with a thin line of gold. A gentle breeze blew by, carrying a faint chill and the fresh scent of earth mixed with the subtle fragrance of distant flowers and grass.
"Huh?"
Just as he was adjusting his mood, he spotted a figure pulling a small suitcase.
Since the children were still asleep, the orphanage courtyard was relatively quiet. So anyone entering the yard from the building stood out.
"Where are you going?"
Lupin quickly grabbed the pants beside him, pulled them on, snatched his worn coat, and climbed straight out the window. The second-floor height posed no danger to him.
"It's the start of a new term, of course I'm going to Diagon Alley to buy books and supplies." Ian waved the checklist in his hand, it had been sent along with a gift from Dumbledore the night before.
In addition to that, Grindelwald, Snape, and his own Head of House/Director had all sent him birthday presents. Compared to Grindelwald's Egyptian crystal ball and Dumbledore's wand care kit, Snape's brand-new potion refining equipment wasn't quite so considerate, as it was custom-made to adult dimensions.
Ian figured this was his dear uncle's revenge for the shampoo gift he gave him earlier.
"You're going alone?" Lupin glanced at Ian's small suitcase.
"No, there's also Miss Hermione Granger… the daughter of that gentleman who previously donated to the orphanage. He asked me to assist them in Diagon Alley."
"They're all Muggles, completely unfamiliar with the wizarding world." Ian was a warm-hearted person, especially when Mr. Granger had promised to pay him 500 pounds. That definitely triggered his chronic case of being overly helpful.
"I haven't seen that dentist around the past few days though." Lupin looked slightly confused.
"Uh."
Ian hesitated, then decided to soften his tone, "Lupin-senior, are you not aware that something called a telephone exists in this world?"
Perhaps that still wasn't tactful enough for a little wizard.
(To Be Continued…)
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