"...Really, this has already spread over here. There's a section about you in today's Prophet Daily, under the international news column. It didn't take up much space since there were no photos, but I saw Professor Lupin's name on it this morning!" Hermione's voice sounded a bit excited.
"Not my name?"
While handing a sandwich to Sirius with a wave of his magic wand, William opened up the steamed buns he had brought from New York's Chinatown, placing them in front of himself and Lupin.
"...Uh, let me see, indeed not. Maybe it's because Professor Lupin's identity is more...uh, official?"
Hermione tilted her head, thought for a moment, and then provided a fairly reasonable guess—owl post has latency and given the long distance between the two, they ultimately resorted to a more convenient communication method—like phone calls.
Coming from a Muggle background, Hermione naturally wouldn't be like Ron, who didn't even know the telephone receiver should be held to the ear.
The reason Hermione called this time was naturally because of William's fame across the ocean—
The matter of hunting down that group of poachers certainly couldn't pass by silently and unnoticed. If William, Lupin, and Sirius were indeed the kind of so-called Scourers Congress suspected, then the number of heads they collected on this trip could even justify erecting a jingguan at the entrance of America's Magic Congress.
The bounty they exchanged was enough to fill a medium vault at Gringotts.
Therefore, now America Magic Congress's attitude towards the three of them is rather cautious. After all, the last person who could pull off something like this...no, there hasn't been anyone who could do something so outrageously insane—hundreds of people, though they were undoubtedly criminals, and although Congress indeed has the death penalty, but...not a single survivor!
Is this person the Dark Lord? But, they seem to be doing good deeds here?
...Undetermined, let's keep observing.
In short, they're being put up in a well-furnished hotel on Manhattan Island (changed to a Muggle hotel at William's request), and except for a few necessary inquiries initially, the Congress didn't disturb the three of them further, not even for questioning—only Lupin went, and the Congress people completely didn't believe William was the leader among the three.
Of course, William didn't bother emphasizing further, since he had already revealed the truth; whether or not the other side believed it was up to them.
With this time, he might as well tidy up the little creatures he had newly adopted—after receiving William's owl post, it's said that Newt almost grew wings on the spot and flew over to help, but forced by pressure from both sides—
Referring to Newt being forced by his wife Tina to rest at home, and America's Magic Congress's strong resistance to Mr. Scamander's entry request.
Reportedly, that day, the director of Muggle Errors Information Department, an old man with every hair on his body turned white, stood on top of the Congress building, declaring if that damned fellow was allowed entry, he'd jump off the roof...
Who knows what kind of trauma Newt brought him.
So, the old man could only send his two students to help return those animals to the wild, and started pestering William with letters at a frequency of two every three days, in consideration of the Scamander family's old owl's mental and physical health. William taught them how to use the Muggle phone, and then—
Even noisier, Newt called once every three hours until three days ago when all the concluding work was finished.
While the concluding work was going on, and Lupin was called for investigation by Congress, William naturally didn't stay idle. At that time, he had already released those captured individuals and put them into the suitcase, so how many could come out from the suitcase now was still up to him?
Thus, he'd leave a nest here, keep two over there, American-contracted creatures were quite abundant, William even had to help create some special growth environments for them—
For example, the Nundu, this creature has a very irritable temperament, and although the Druid aura was still in effect, William couldn't guarantee it would live harmoniously with the other creatures. Thus, he released it near Lina's place—this female dragon was recently in her mating season and even more irritable than the leopard.
Waking up, she almost took a bite out of William.
So now, looking at the Nundu that's squatting in front of him, with temperament noticeably better than the previous days, at least allowing its head to be stroked, William nodded in satisfaction.
Gotta fight a leopard with a leopard.
After helping relocate a nest of Jackalopes to a new home and creating a territory for two Bigfoots, William finally climbed out of the suitcase using a ladder.
"Good evening."
At the dinner table, Lupin was shaking the newspaper in his hand with a bowl of soup in front of him.
"Morning."
William yawned as he walked out of the suitcase, and as he stepped out, the suitcase sensibly closed itself, then hopped with its two corners over to the bedside.
"Where's Sirius?"
Seeing that Sirius, who usually lounged on the sofa at this point watching Muggle TV shows, wasn't on his throne, William raised an eyebrow in curiosity. As he finished speaking, even before Lupin could reply, the door to the suite was pushed open from the outside—
"...I'm back!"
Sirius, carrying a bag, bounced inside from the doorway with a spirited look.
If it were in a Japanese manga, it might not seem out of place, but now, he's only greeted by the identical, emotionless gaze of William and Lupin.
"... Tsk."
Sirius sighed, sprawled out on the sofa, and fumbled under his seat to find the remote. He turned on the nightly popcorn show that went with dinner. Then he suddenly seemed to remember something, rummaged through the bag at his side for a while, and then pulled out a few grease-stained tickets from under his dinner, handing them to William.
"Scourgify. (Clean it up)"
Before taking them, William couldn't help but cast a charm on Sirius's greasy hand, and then gave the man a full-body cleanup. This guy hadn't even been in New York for a week, and he was already fitting in, eating fried chicken and drinking cola at every meal. His once thin cheeks were now plumping up at a visible rate.
According to Sirius himself, he was so hungry at Azkaban for ten years that it scared him.
"These are..."
"I ran into that kid you told me to keep an eye on downstairs, the one, the one, the one..."
"Graves?"
"Yes, yes, that's him!"
Sirius flicked the long hair blocking his face to the back of his head and gnawed at the chicken drumstick in his hand with determination. "I met him in the hotel lobby; he was just about to go upstairs when he spotted me coming down, handed me this thing, and asked me to pass it on to... Professor Lupin."
"...It's been half a year, how did I end up a professor?"
"Tsk, the good buddy you used to prank Filch with as a kid suddenly becoming a professor, feels weird."
"An invitation."
While the two bickered, William had already flipped the invitation over and over in his hands, then a smile appeared on his face, he had finally been waiting for this.
...
"...Good evening."
In the suburbs of New York City, a building that does not exist on Muggle maps stood halfway up a hill. Audric Graves, squinting his eyes and looking somewhat half-dead, stood at the entrance of the manor. Seeing the approaching three people, he finally forced himself to perk up.
Not unlike the wealthy Malfoy family...
William held his head high, moving his gaze away from the not-too-distant pure white building. That five-story structure looked luxurious even from the outside, even more so than the Malfoy family mansion... though the latter had been blasted to ruins after a series of Blasting Curses.
A new tycoon, hmm, the plan is going smoothly.
After exchanging greetings with Audric—who should have been welcoming guests but ended up following them inside—this young gentleman looked quite exhausted, far thinner than he had been a week ago, trailing Sirius like he hadn't slept enough—
This made Sirius somewhat worried the guy might suddenly drop dead on him.
"Busy?"
William asked a rhetorical question.
"...Yes, too many people have died. Although it's officially stated as detainment, but."
Audric sighed, tugging at the suffocating tie around his chest, he forced himself to stay alert, leading William and the group of three into the garden, which was decorated like a typical Muggle banquet, except the people mingling among the crowd weren't waiters in red uniforms but rather house-elves looking none too happy.
"Alright, let's not talk about that—"
Audric sniffed, not yet mature as he had just graduated from the academy, and even the acne on his face hadn't completely gone away. Although he grew up in this family, he seemed unable to adapt and integrate here at any time.
It's like even though he held the position of security chief, a week earlier he didn't know that damn poachers had actually been developed under the support of his family—
The Graves family's history on this land can be traced back to the first group of immigrants when the New World was just discovered. Back then, the British Ministry of Magic conveniently exiled a bunch of prisoners with lighter sentences that couldn't all be crammed into prison (Azkaban became a Wizard Prison in 1718).
The ancestors of the Graves family were among them.
Then, Gondulphus Graves became one of the initial twelve Aurors of the America Magic Congress, and from then on, the Graves family began to prosper. Although later a key family member was replaced by Grindelwald, the family still managed to pass down and develop—
Moreover, unlike those stubborn Pure-Bloods on the European mainland who tend to self-consume internally, although intermarriage with Muggles is also forbidden here, the legacy of Pure-Blood doesn't have those rigorous demands; Muggle wizards can also become daughters-in-law of the Graves family—so, this means...
"...Yes, this originally was a family gathering."
Audric said with his half-dead voice. Upon hearing this, Lupin and Sirius subconsciously opened their mouths wide in surprise.