"Was it Remus who told you I had a private plantation?" Adrian asked, raising an eyebrow at Remus, his tone carrying a hint of amused accusation mixed with curiosity.
Tonks immediately froze mid-examination of a nearby shelf, her hand still reaching toward an interesting-looking preserved specimen in a jar.
Seeing Adrian's reaction and suddenly worried she'd overstepped some boundary or learned something she shouldn't know, her expression shifted to uncertainty.
"Um, yes... Was I not supposed to know about it?" She asked cautiously, her usual confidence wavering.
She cast an uneasy, almost apologetic glance at Remus, silently asking if she'd gotten him in trouble.
Adrian shook his head gently, his expression softening to reassure her.
In fact, he had never asked Remus to keep the plantation's existence secret.
Even if word about it got out more widely in certain circles, even if people knew he maintained such a facility somewhere, ordinary wizards would have absolutely no way of actually finding the place physically, even if they knew with certainty, he had such a hidden location.
The greenhouse existed in a pocket of folded space, accessible only through specific keyed portals.
"It's just that..." He paused deliberately, looking at Remus with meaningfulness, "Remus very rarely shares personal secrets with others. He's remarkably good at keeping things to himself. It seems he really must like you quite a bit to have mentioned something like this."
Remus immediately coughed lightly into his fist, raising his teacup rather hastily to his lips to mask his sudden discomfort and the faint flush creeping up his neck. He took a long sip of tea he didn't particularly need, avoiding everyone's eyes.
Tonks, by contrast, wore an absolutely beaming smile.
"Come on, Tonks," Adrian decided not to tease them further though it was tempting, the way they both looked so awkward—and gestured toward the mysterious door.
"Since you're so clearly interested in seeing the plantation, I can show you around... But I imagine you two have some actual news or business to tell me first, yes? You didn't come here purely to tour the plantation at this hour."
Remus and Tonks exchanged glances, a silent communication passing between them.
"You're as perceptive as ever, Adrian," Remus said with a slight nod, his voice dropping to a more somber tone. "Yes, there is news, and it's rather concerning. It's about Moody. He's been injured."
Adrian turned his full attention toward them immediately, his relaxed posture becoming more alert. "Moody? What happened to him? How bad is the injury? Is he stable?"
If Remus had made a specific point of coming here personally to mention it rather than sending an owl, then Moody's condition must be quite serious indeed. This wasn't a minor scrape or usual injury.
Moody was an extraordinarily formidable old Auror with decades of combat experience, someone who'd survived the first war against Voldemort through skill and paranoid caution. Whatever could manage to seriously injure someone of his caliber and experience was absolutely no trivial matter at all.
"He's been terribly, unusually unlucky lately," Tonks said, sitting back more fully in the armchair with a heavy, frustrated sigh. Her usual bubbly energy seemed dampened by concern.
"Like, absurdly unlucky in ways that don't make any sense. First, just last week when he came to meet us at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, he insisted that the house-elf was deliberately trying to poison his dinner."
She rolled her eyes at Moody's excessive caution.
"So naturally, he refused to eat anything Kreacher prepared and insisted on brewing his own antidote potion beforehand, just in case. But somehow and this is Moody we're talking about, someone who's brewed thousands of potions—he got the ingredients completely wrong. Mixed up his Bezoars with Bulbadox powder or something equally stupid."
She shook her head in disbelief.
"After drinking his own antidote, his whole face broke out in these horrible purple bubbles, like giant boils, and everything he said afterward smelled like rotten cabbage for three days straight. Nobody could stand to be in the same room with him. It was awful."
Despite the seriousness, Harry had to suppress a snort of laughter at the imaginary image.
"And then there was more," Tonks continued, ticking incidents off on her fingers.
"He accidentally triggered one of his own alarm wards and got hit with his own Stinging Hex. He walked into a door that had been in the same place for fifty years, gave himself a black eye. He dropped his wand down a drain. His magical eye got stuck facing backward for an entire day. Just one ridiculous thing after another, things that shouldn't happen to someone so experienced and careful."
She paused, her expression darkening significantly.
"And then," She continued, her eyebrow creasing with concern and frustration, "just yesterday afternoon, while pursuing a group of suspected Death Eaters or their sympathizers in a nearby Muggle town following solid intelligence we'd received—he walked straight into what turned out to be a ambush.
They were waiting for him; knew he was coming somehow. And during the fight... his leg was badly broken."
Harry, who had been listening with alarm from his position on the sofa, immediately tensed up.
Remus quickly and calmly interjected, holding up one reassuring hand, his tone providing the relief despite the situation. "Fortunately, it was his wooden prosthetic leg that broke rather than his real one."
"That is rather lucky, then, relatively speaking," Adrian agreed with a slight shrug. "A broken prosthetic is extremely better than a shattered real leg, especially at his age. Though I imagine he's furious about the indignity of it."
"Absolutely livid," Tonks confirmed. "You should have heard the swearing."
"Unfortunately, those dark wizards managed to escape during the confusion of Moody going down," Remus sighed heavily. "It should have been a perfect operation—we had them cornered, outnumbered, trapped. And they still got away while we were helping Moody. It's frustrating beyond words."
"It's the curse!" Harry suddenly blurted out, interrupting before Remus could continue. His voice was urgent, almost excited with the realization.
Everyone's attention immediately turned to him, three pairs of eyes were focusing on him intently.
"Professor Moody is our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, isn't he?" Harry explained urgently, leaning forward in his seat.
"Everyone in the entire wizarding world knows that Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position is cursed! Has been for decades! No professor lasts more than a year—they always have something terrible happen to them!"
Harry's sudden words made perfect logical sense.
In fact, upon first hearing the news of Moody's injury and this string of improbable misfortunes, Adrian's immediate first thought had also been of the curse left behind by Voldemort after he'd been denied the position all those years ago.
The pattern was too familiar, and consistent with previous victims.
"But Moody already made it through one complete year safely, didn't he?" Remus pointed out, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he considered the timeline. "He taught all last year without serious incident. Would the curse really still take effect on him now, weeks after the school year ended? Does it work that way?"
"Wait a moment!"
Tonks suddenly lifted her head sharply. "I remember now—at the very end of last month, during one of our patrol debriefings, Moody mentioned to me that he'd made a decision. He told me he'd decided to continue as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for next term!"
Adrian pondered this new information for a thoughtful moment.
According to what Tonks had just revealed, the timing of Moody's decision and the beginning of his misfortunes matched up almost perfectly. Too perfectly to be coincidental.
If that was indeed the case, then Moody's sudden streak of seemingly random bad luck was very likely brought on by accepting the Defense Against the Dark Arts position for a second consecutive year.
Last year, through some combination of extreme paranoia, constant vigilance, and probably sheer luck, Moody had somehow managed to evade the curse's effects.
But this year, it seemed he wouldn't be so fortunate or protected.
The curse's effects were already gradually manifesting and escalating, causing increasingly serious incidents, even though the actual school term hadn't even begun yet and wouldn't for another two weeks.
If this pattern continued or accelerated...
"You'd better talk to Moody as soon as possible," Adrian said seriously.
"I strongly suggest he seriously reconsider his decision to continue teaching. When it comes to anything left behind by Voldemort, especially this particular kind of insidious, malicious curse that's persisted for literal decades, one absolutely cannot be too careful or dismissive. This isn't just about experiencing bad luck and breaking a prosthetic leg."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"One wrong move, one moment of bad timing, and it could easily cost him his life."
"I'll definitely remind Moody about the potential danger, strongly," Remus nodded solemnly, his expression also grave with understanding and concern. "And I'll discuss this entire situation with Dumbledore as well, immediately."
"Where is Moody right now?" Adrian asked. "St. Mungo's Hospital?"
"No, surprisingly he's not at the hospital," Remus shook his head with a dry smile.
"Though we did try to convince him to go. He's currently recuperating in a secure safe house not too far from here actually. We tracked those Death Eaters we mentioned to a nearby Muggle town initially—that's where Moody was ultimately ambushed.
To properly handle the aftermath, investigate the site, and maintain surveillance on the area in case they return, we temporarily activated an old safe house location that hadn't been used in years."
Adrian's frown deepened at this information, a nagging feeling of connection forming.
'Nearby? In this area?'
He suddenly remembered those strange, suspicious figures he'd seen on the street right outside his shop at the very beginning of summer vacation—those two men in dark trench coats with their faces concealed, who'd given off faint magical signatures and then vanished via Apparition.
Surely there was no connection?
That would be too much of a coincidence... wouldn't it?
For the rest of that evening, Adrian graciously showed Tonks around his private plantation, giving her a tour.
Actually, Tonks's initial request to visit hadn't been purely born out of simple curiosity or desire to see exotic plants though she was genuinely interested in that aspect.
Moody's current treatment required several quite rare magical herbs and plant components that were difficult to source through normal channels, and Remus had mentioned to her in confidence that Adrian's plantation happened to have those specimens growing and available.
Naturally, Adrian wasn't stingy about providing the needed materials.
As darkness finally fell completely outside, the group stepped out of the enchanted portal and returned to the shop's main room.
"That was absolutely amazing! Incredible! Like nothing I've ever seen!" Tonks exclaimed in wonder, her eyes were still wide with amazement. "I mean, I've been to botanical gardens and Herbology greenhouses at school and everything, but this is on another level!"
Many of the exotic plant varieties in Adrian's collection were ones she'd never encountered anywhere else in her life, not in her Auror training or her years at Hogwarts or anywhere. Some she hadn't even known existed.
At this moment, as they talked, she was holding carefully in her arms a constantly wiggly, sharp-leaved, tooth-bearing Chomping Cabbage that kept trying to shift itself.
Strangely and rather unusually, this particular Chomping Cabbage was an eye-catching bright blue color rather than the normal green.
The agitated Chomping Cabbage was extremely restless in her arms, rustling continuously and occasionally trying to hoist its head around to open its vegetable mouth full of small sharp teeth to bite at her robes.
"Be careful with that one, Tonks," Adrian warned slightly, watching the plant's aggressive movements. "It generally has a decent temperament compared to some of the others, but getting bitten by it wouldn't be pleasant at all. Those teeth are sharper than they look."
"Oh, I know that!" Tonks said confidently, carefully holding the squirming Chomping Cabbage up above her head and away from her body to examine it better.
"This might actually be the only magical plant I can reliably identify on sight! It's definitely a Chomping Cabbage, right? I remember them from Herbology class—got bitten by one in third year.
But the color is so incredibly unusual! I've never seen a blue one anywhere else, not in any book or greenhouse! Is it a regional variant?"
She scrutinized at it with fascination.
"A small improvement I've been working on," Adrian said casually.
In reality, he had cultivated many different Chomping Cabbages over the months with various mutated "parasitic" properties, and this blue Chomping Cabbage was one of his more recent and interesting successes.
It had recently acquired a new characteristic—this Chomping Cabbage was blue specifically because of that new ability.
Well... that description didn't sound particularly impressive or useful.
All right, it did actually have some genuine practical use beyond unusual coloring. When touched roughly or when it felt genuinely threatened by something, this mutated Chomping Cabbage would not only bite aggressively as usual, but would also simultaneously release an extremely faint, almost completely invisible blue-tinted dust.
Inhaling even small amounts of this dust wouldn't cause direct physical harm or damage to the respiratory system, but would inexplicably trigger brief yet intense feelings of melancholy and deep depression in the victim, causing them to temporarily lose their will to fight or resist as they were overwhelmed by a sudden wave of inexplicable profound sadness.
Adrian had privately dubbed it the "Melancholy Chomping Cabbage" in his notes.
Of course, under normal, calm circumstances and gentle handling, the Melancholy Chomping Cabbage wouldn't release that depression-inducing dust at all.
That was precisely why Adrian felt comfortable and safe letting it stay in Tonks's arms.
However, just as Adrian was thinking this...
Tonks suddenly did something completely unexpected and utterly baffling.
She brought the Melancholy Chomping Cabbage closer to her face and then....
She licked it!
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