Just a Little

The Magic Image he drew was incomprehensible to everyone. Most of it had no discernible pattern, looking like a child had randomly scribbled with several different colored pencils.

Even the Old Wizard could not understand it. After becoming a ghost, he could no longer add knowledge to his memory list. No matter how long he stared at the drawing, he could neither remember nor comprehend it.

"Everyone." Anton took off his coat, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and gently drew his wand from inside his coat with his right hand.

"Now comes the moment to witness a miracle!"

He lightly waved his wand, his arms making countless Hand Gestures as he muttered under his breath. It looked less like casting a spell and more like dancing.

"Caw caw caw, the second Biomimetic Spell. What will this one be?" The Old Wizard was clearly looking forward to it.

Anna silently watched Anton's profile. "He has always been this outstanding."

Just then, Anton suddenly bent backward, his waist impossibly flexible.

His upper body swiftly pressed downward, his stomach arching upward.

Then he kept bending until his head passed through his own legs, forming an O-shape.

"Perfect waist strength, perfect spine." Pedro burst out laughing. "Children really are flexible. Anton, you should not be a wizard. You should study dance, go dance... dance... Merlin's holey socks!"

His mouth fell so wide open that he could have stuffed an entire cat into it.

The head that emerged from between Anton's legs was actually a snake's head!

Triangular, covered in scales, with pale blue vertical pupils—it was a Viper.

The snake's head kept slithering forward as the Viper's long body slowly stretched out from Anton's upper body.

Its body coiled upon the ground, and in the end, even his feet turned into a snake's tail.

It was a full twelve feet long, its thickest part as wide as a truck tire.

The great snake raised its neck high, lowered its head from above to stare at Anna, and flicked its tongue.

The great snake spoke in human words.

It said,

"Oh, you adorable little witch, do you know?"

The great snake swayed its body. "Being a snake feels wonderful!"

It looked so ridiculous that Anna, whose face had been filled with sorrow, burst into laughter. She giggled and reached out to stroke the great snake's cold cheek. "Really?"

"Yes~" The great snake sighed. "I have never felt so free before."

"Quick!"

The great snake urged her, "Turn into a snake too. I cannot wait to go play in the castle with you."

"Mm." Anna nodded hard, and her body began to transform. Since her first magical outburst, she had possessed the ability to transform. This was the first time in a month that she had turned into a great snake.

"Hahaha, come chase me." Anton was incredibly fast. He slithered across the floor and shot out of the room in an instant.

Anna refused to be outdone and quickly chased after him.

"Merlin's moldy underpants!" The Old Wizard's expression was complicated. "He really did it!"

"He actually did it!"

"He really just did it like that!!!"

Back then, he had warned Anton not to give Lupin and Anna hope too early. If Anton could not do it, or gave up because it was too difficult, it would bring the greatest despair to those who had placed their hopes in him.

But unbelievably, Anton had taken another step toward his goal!

"This is not Animagus!" Pedro the Goblin was stunned. "I cannot find any trace of Transfiguration!"

"This is not the Blood Curse, I know that!"

"Nor is this some goblin secret art he stole from my memories!"

"Caw caw caw." The Old Wizard laughed smugly. "Foolish Teacher, what do you know? This is Anton's 'Biomimetic Spell,' a path he forged himself upon the foundation of my Fiennes's Potion Studies!"

The Old Wizard looked immensely proud.

"My goodness." Pedro praised, "Your apprentice is far more outstanding than mine."

The Old Wizard did not retort. He merely smiled and said, "That is indeed true."

Outside the door, Anna's cheerful laughter echoed.

The Old Wizard shook his head with one hand. "Despite having such a terrible Teacher, such a terrible Teacher's Teacher, and such terrible life experiences, he still retains a kind heart. That is the rarest thing of all."

Pedro the Goblin disagreed.

He sneered. "Kind? You have no idea what he has been doing in my memories. He has been stealing our goblin magic!"

"That shameless thief who takes without asking is just as hateful as his Teacher."

"Caw caw caw~" The Old Wizard was delighted by Pedro's displeased expression.

"Sometimes he really is a bastard. But sometimes, he can save Lupin, save you, save Nagini without asking for anything in return. I think he is a good person."

The Old Wizard's eyes grew distant. "I do not know how much longer I can retain my will. I can feel the gale winds of this world slowly stripping the will from my ghostly body, erasing it bit by bit."

"What a pity. I wonder whether I will have the chance to see the moment when he shines most brilliantly."

The Old Wizard turned to Pedro. "He will be the most dazzling person of this era. Like Dumbledore and Grindelwald, no matter how talented anyone else in their time may be, they can only fade into obscurity beneath their radiant brilliance!"

Pedro chuckled. "He may become as you say, but he may also die in some adventure. That little bastard is not someone willing to live quietly."

The Old Wizard shrugged and said nothing more.

Heh. Talking to such an old goblin was simply a waste of his precious ghostly life.

Go away.

As Anna gradually became cheerful again, an important day quietly approached.

It was the day Nagini transformed into a great snake, lost all consciousness, and began attacking her own daughter.

Then she was killed by her beloved husband himself.

Of course, she eventually crawled out of the grave. But how much of that woman's memories, emotions, and will remained in the great snake's body that crawled out was self-evident.

"Let's go back." Anna reluctantly glanced at the little wooden house outside the castle window, and at the beautiful woman's figure within it.

Her little hand sank into the void, as though grasping the valve of some machine.

Pedro sighed. The Old Wizard shook his head. The great snake flicked its tongue.

Only Anton remained seated behind a desk piled high with parchment. He raised his head, seeming to have made a decision, and looked seriously at everyone. "Everyone, I have a proposal."

They looked at him in confusion. Anna seemed to lose her courage and hurriedly withdrew her hand from the void.

"Mr. Pedro, you are the goblins' 'Time and Memory Collector and Traveler.'"

Pedro nodded.

"I saw a goblin philosophical question in your memories: if someone returned to the past and, on the day his wife became pregnant in history, replaced his historical self and impregnated his wife, would their child still be the original child who was supposed to have existed?"

Pedro looked displeased. "What else did you see in my memories?"

Anton shrugged. "That is not the point. Let us return to this philosophical question."

Pedro indignantly cursed in goblin language. Seeing that Anton appeared to understand, he became even more displeased. In the end, he still said, "There is no answer to this kind of question. Playing with time belongs to the domain of gods. The goblins have split into many schools of thought over it."

"One school of lunatics did conduct a similar experiment, but no one knew what the result was, because later history did not change!"

"Is that so?"

Anton smiled. "During this time, I brewed a goblin secret potion."

"Bullshit!" Pedro was truly enraged. He rushed over, stared at the cauldron on the table, and frowned as he sniffed it. "Sealed Prison? What are you making this for?"

Anton smiled. "If, and I mean if."

"If the Nagini before us, who can no longer return to human form, replaces the Nagini from thirty-eight years ago, who could still be saved."

"Let her be attacked by Rosier, while we feed the Nagini from thirty-eight years ago 'Sealed Prison' to seal her consciousness, then bring her back as though she were the future Nagini."

"Would that not be equivalent to switching them under heaven's nose and obtaining a Nagini who can still be saved?"

These words, enough to confuse an ordinary person, exploded in the ears of Pedro, the Old Wizard, and Anna, all three of whom were intelligent.

Anna's eyes shone as she grabbed the hem of the goblin's suit jacket. "Can we do that?"

Pedro frowned and struggled with the thought for a long time. "It is a bold hypothesis. If it fails, we will merely bring back a Nagini who has completely lost any chance of transforming back."

The Old Wizard looked puzzled. "Why feed 'Sealed Prison' to the Nagini we bring back, rather than the Nagini who must experience thirty-eight years of time?"

Pedro was deep in thought and impatiently explained, "Because of time reversal's corrective interference. It is a profound theory. I could not explain it to you even in days."

Suddenly, he stared at Anton in shock. "Just how much did you see in my memories?!!!"

Anton smiled and held up his thumb and index finger, leaving an extremely tiny gap between them. "I did not mean to look. Just a little."