Lilas was the name of Fleur and Gabrielle's little sister.
She was born on the seventh of June, and today, the seventh of July, marks exactly one month since her birth.
Wayne and Hermione left the Goblin tribe and arrived at Fleur's home.
"Brother!"
Gabrielle cheered and threw herself at him, clinging to Wayne like a koala. Perhaps her voice was too loud, as loud crying soon came from upstairs.
"Oh dear, I woke my sister." Gabrielle quickly covered her small mouth.
Wayne carried her as he and Hermione went upstairs, where Mrs Delacour was comforting her loudly wailing youngest daughter.
Fleur came forward, first kissing Wayne's cheek, sharing a lingering, affectionate gaze for two seconds, before taking Gabrielle from him with mild exasperation and setting her down.
"How old are you now? Still needing to be carried? Can't you walk by yourself?"
Gabrielle wrinkled her cute little nose, gave a light humph and ignored her, then pattered over to the pram to look at her sister.
After greeting Mrs Delacour, Wayne and Hermione also came closer.
Hermione carefully held her breath, afraid that any sudden movement might disturb the now quietened baby and make her cry again.
But when she peeked into the pram, she couldn't help but exclaim: "So adorable!"
The one-month-old baby no longer looked wrinkled like a newborn, but had become plump and glowing. On her round little face, jade-green eyes identical to Fleur's darted about curiously, watching the faces peering in at her.
Most amusing were her arms and legs, which resembled segments of lotus root - chubby and tempting one to touch them.
Hermione couldn't resist. "Mrs Delacour, may I touch her?"
Mrs Delacour said with a smile, "Of course. Lilas seems to like you all - she hasn't cried at all."
Hermione happily extended a hand, using just one finger to poke the plump little leg gently, her expression one of delight.
Gabrielle also reached out with her small hands to play with her sister. The baby's large eyes fixed intently on Wayne, and she gently waved her arms.
Mrs Delacour looked surprised. "Wayne, I think Lilas wants you to hold her."
It seemed Wayne really had a connection with her daughters—both the older and the younger ones liked him very much.
"This is my first time holding a baby," Wayne said with a smile, then gently picked up Lilas. The little one made unintelligible "ah-ah" sounds, though it was unclear whether they indicated pleasure or protest.
A one-month-old baby could already make simple sounds, though most were unconscious. In a few more months, her smiles and cries would begin to convey specific emotions, and she could interact with adults.
Under Mrs Delacour's guidance, Wayne's movements became more professional, and he gently rocked her. Before long, Lilas had fallen into a deep sleep.
After returning her to the pram, Wayne took out the gift he had prepared earlier - a bottle of strange liquid emitting a warm glow.
When he produced it, everyone present, except Hermione, found themselves unconsciously drawn to it, feeling an inexplicable craving arise in their hearts—a desire to drink all that liquid and merge completely with it.
"What is this?" Fleur asked with difficulty.
"The waters of the Sunwell," Wayne revealed the treasure's true name, yet they remained utterly perplexed. Even Hermione, who had read the most books, had never heard of the 'Sunwell'.
This was a prize drawn from the system's reward package when the Lawrence Medal was established.
[Sunwell: Created from a vial of waters from the Well of Eternity, it is an infinitely powerful magical energy spring. It can connect to the Sunwell to harness its power for spellcasting, or one may directly consume its waters to enhance magical aptitude comprehensively.]
A terrifying pseudo-artefact level treasure, unfortunately, in its nascent state. The amount of water it could condense daily was limited; it can currently produce only one vial every seven days.
But as time passed, once the waters reached their peak, production would no longer be an issue.
Having played World of Warcraft, Wayne knew exactly how terrifying the Sunwell truly was - it had sustained the high elves for thousands of years, enabling their single race to produce more wizards than the entire continent combined, making it their clan's foundational treasure.
Though there existed the hidden danger of magic addiction, by being mindful of the dosage and avoiding dependency, no major issues would arise.
He tasted the first cup himself—hmm, no effect. His current talent couldn't be improved by waters from a mere pseudo-artefact.
Perhaps a sip from the Well of Eternity itself might have been somewhat useful.
The second cup he gave to Hermione, and the effects were immediately apparent.
The young witch's control over magical power reached new heights, while her total magical power surged dramatically, already surpassing what Snape had possessed originally - though she still couldn't compare to the current Snape, who had integrated several magical creature bloodlines.
Times were progressing, and so were the standards of measurement.
Lilas was too young, of course, to drink the entire vial of well water.
Using magic, Wayne controlled one-fifth of the vial's contents to float out, gently applying it to the baby's skin for gradual absorption.
"Fleur, apply this to Lilas weekly from now on. The amount doesn't matter much, just let it absorb slowly."
Once fully absorbed, the little one's aptitude would certainly achieve qualitative improvement, and the timing of her Magic Riot would likely advance significantly. One could say she was born and immediately sent to Rome by Wayne.
Handing the vial to Fleur, who swallowed hard and asked quietly, "Are there any more besides this one?"
She wasn't coveting the Sunwell's effects, merely curious about what the water tasted like that could provoke such a strong reaction in her.
"I want some too, I want some too!" Gabrielle raised her pale, delicate little hand, drool practically dripping from her mouth.
"None for now, we'll have to wait a while." Wayne shook his head under their disappointed gazes.
After staying in Paris for several days, Wayne and Hermione embarked on their journey once more.
Gabrielle had wanted to come along, but Fleur stopped her.
She knew this period was specifically for Wayne to accompany Hermione - that he could spare a few days here was already quite generous.
Anyway, next semester both sisters would be going to Hogwarts—one as a teacher, one as a student—so there would be plenty of time.
Leaving France, their first destination was the Goblin tribe in Persia.
News of what had happened in France had long since reached them. The Persian tribe had originally planned to surrender their template forging technology to buy peace, but who could have expected Lawrence to overreach, even setting his sights on their Wealth Gems.
No matter how poor or fearful of death they were, they couldn't possibly hand over their clan's foundational treasures after just a few words. Additionally, while they knew Wayne had defeated the French tribe's puppets, they had no idea how effortlessly he'd accomplished it.
So the Goblins charged forward.
While summoning two pure energy hands to pin two Goblins to the ground, Wayne shouted, "These puppets are too dangerous!" and "I must seal you away!"
Then he stored both their bodies and gems in his pocket.
The Goblins completely surrendered.
Having obtained the Galleon forging technique and the core templates, the bank could finally officially open.
After summoning Ho-Oh to deliver everything back, Hermione and Wayne continued their sightseeing. Their next destination was South America, a place neither had ever visited before.
...
England, London, Diagon Alley.
This summer, the usually unchanging Diagon Alley unusually gained two new shops. One was Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, opened by the Weasley brothers, while the other remained mysterious. Located north of Potage's Cauldron Shop, where there had previously been an empty storefront, construction had suddenly begun two months ago using spatial magic to expand the shop's area until it nearly matched Gringotts in size.
By early July, the shop was fully renovated but still bore no sign.
Passersby would often wonder what kind of store would require premises as impressive as Gringotts.
Finally, one day in mid-July, the entire wizarding world learned the truth.
Lawrence Commercial Bank!
All major wizarding newspapers devoted extensive coverage to Lawrence Bank's opening.
Headlines like 'The First Bank Controlled by Wizards', 'Wizarding Wealth Belongs to Wizards', and 'The Safest Place in the World' appeared everywhere.
On opening day, Mrs Greengrass and the wizards Wayne had contacted in advance queued at Gringotts to withdraw all their family treasures and assets stored there, transferring them to Lawrence Bank. Each received an exquisite little card in return.
The wizarding world had never developed a habit of card payments, typically relying on cash transactions - particularly tedious when counting out exact amounts of mixed coins.
Upon hearing they could settle payments simply by swiping cards, traditional pure-blood wizards found this revolutionary.
That same day, shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade received card machines free of charge. Driven by curiosity, many people experimentally purchased needed items.
Mr Weasley visited Celia Store and bought two bottles of stain remover. After swiping his card, he saw a deduction of three Sickles; he checked at Lawrence Bank and confirmed his vault indeed contained three fewer Sickles.
Instantly, wizards fell in love with the convenience of not having to carry heavy bags of coins everywhere.
Many shopkeepers who hadn't received free machines proactively sought cooperation.
Elsewhere, with the help of followers, European branches opened one after another. For more distant regions, Mrs Greengrass had postponed branch openings due to insufficient staff.
The Goblins were also suffering terribly, having lost at least several million Galleons in deposits over just half a month, with the outflow continuing unabated.
They wanted to replicate the bank cards Wayne had created to stem the decline, but after obtaining a few samples, they found they couldn't understand the technology used at all. They had no choice but to hire human Alchemy experts at high prices for assistance, with no guarantee of when they might succeed.
Meanwhile, far away in Hawaii, Wayne was closely monitoring the bank's developments, watching the points in his mind continuously tick upward.
With the system upgraded, he could now earn points by casually stirring up trouble in the wizarding world.
The bank's opening, along with his previous 'friendly' exchanges with the Goblins, had already contributed nearly twenty thousand points and were still rising.
"Shall we head back in a few days?"
On the sun-drenched private beach, Wayne suddenly spoke to Hermione, who was lying under a parasol in her bikini, enjoying the sea breeze.
The young witch was slightly taken aback but replied, "Is there something that needs handling? If it's urgent, we can leave today."
"No need." Wayne shook his head with a smile. "It's not that urgent. This weekend will be fine."
"Alright." Hermione agreed promptly, getting up from the lounger and heading back to the villa to prepare dinner for Wayne.
Watching the young witch's increasingly curvaceous figure from behind, Wayne stroked his chin, lost in thought.
This time, upon his return, he planned to investigate the world beyond the archway personally. Naturally, the more points he had, the better prepared he would be.
What major commotion could he stir up in just a few short days?
After a moment's contemplation, Wayne's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Got it!"