Nagini

"You're right." Tom nodded, then added, "But from another perspective, powerful magical artifacts need powerful Wizards to wield them too, don't they?"

"Mm." Flitwick nodded in agreement. "It would be best if you could think of it that way."

"But—" Hearing their conversation, McGonagall spoke solemnly, her tone worried. "It's said that the Elder Wand belonging to the eldest of the three brothers is now in the hands of the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald. A powerful Wand in the hands of an even more powerful Dark Wizard could lead to an unimaginably terrible disaster. Even his followers use the symbol of the three Deathly Hallows as their emblem. If they obtain more Hallows..."

The others all voiced their concerns for the Wizarding world, their faith in social order, and their determination to realize their ambitions and set things right. Like the commonplace late-night talks in university Dormitories decades later, these people varied in age, knowledge, and blood status, yet at this moment, they all brimmed with the high spirits of youth.

But Nelson's gaze drifted. The magical world of Wizards bore strong traces of fatalism: the Elder Wand among the Deathly Hallows passed through the hands of masters who met violent ends; the Resurrection Stone vanished within a tragic family; and the Invisibility Cloak was destined to be passed down to the story's protagonist, Harry Potter. The owners of the Hallows were also destined to kill one another and pursue one another... A Phoenix's tail feather was destined to defeat its brother, and a glass orb recorded by a mad, inept Wizard could determine the fate of the world for decades.

Then why exactly had I come here? Nelson thought distractedly, pressing a hand to his forehead. He had considered this question countless times. Whether it had been when Mrs. Cole first introduced him to Tom, when he had first met a girl named Moaning Myrtle in Ravenclaw Tower, or right here and now, he had never understood the meaning of his existence. Was it truly a good thing to barge so presumptuously into a complete story? He pondered it once again. I don't know whether this destiny includes me. Maybe I really do have some role to play in this history, but I have to do something.

"Nal, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Nelson came back to himself and saw Tom beside him, looking concerned. Hadn't things already changed? Thinking of that, he smiled smugly. "There was a bone in this piece of meat that hadn't been removed. It nearly choked me."

"Hmph, you're strange." Tom's face was full of suspicion. "You're happy even though you nearly choked?"

After that somewhat heavy topic ended, the atmosphere at the table quickly became lively again.

"Minerva, surely you aren't really dating a Muggle, are you? I'd say it wouldn't matter even if you were robbing the cradle." As Augusta warmly expressed concern for McGonagall, she jerked her chin toward Nelson. Her hands were not idle either. She had asked for a plate of fresh meat and was cutting it into small pieces to feed the vulture in the cage. "Protego!"

She set the Wand she had somehow picked up onto the table and said smugly, "Trying to ambush me? You're still far too early."

Nelson could not help but think more highly of her. He had not expected someone who had failed Charms to possess such reflexes and spellcasting ability. Her combat strength was not to be underestimated. No wonder she would one day take on Dawlish alone at the age of eighty.

"Augusta, don't say that in front of them." McGonagall unhappily lowered her Wand, then turned to Nelson with a conflicted expression. "I heard you were Muggle-born. If—if, I mean, if a Muggle knew that their... um, that one of their good friends was a Wizard, what would they do?"

Nelson was not quite sure. After thinking for a long while, he finally chose his words carefully. "They might adopt their friend's child?"

?

Nelson could practically see a huge Question Mark appear over McGonagall's head. Augusta, meanwhile, was already clutching the Birdcage and laughing so hard she could not close her mouth.

"Sorry, Senior," Nelson said. "My father seems to have been a Wizard, and then his good friend—my uncle—adopted me. And my good friend, as you know, Tom, is also a Wizard."

McGonagall lowered her head in disappointment. As if to preserve the strong front she was used to maintaining, she raised her head again in a show of indifference, only to hear Nelson continue, "But I think that if you care enough, what difference is there between Wizards and Muggles?"

"Yes, Minerva. As far as I know, quite a few of our classmates are half-bloods, and their families are just as happy." Flitwick stood on his chair and waved a hand. "Besides, Wizards and Muggles are both human. They don't look any different."

"Sniff—" Hagrid's eyes were red as he pulled out a handkerchief the size of a towel and blew his nose. Choking back sobs, he pulled a photograph from one of his patches. Only then did Nelson realize that all those patches were pockets sewn onto his clothes. Hagrid spread the photograph on the table. "S-sorry, I thought of my dad."

Only then did Nelson realize that inside the enormous body across from him was a child not yet ten years old—a child who had been treated as a monster, isolated, and discriminated against since childhood. He leaned over to look at the photograph Hagrid had spread on the table. It was an old black-and-white picture, yellowed with age. A short, round-headed man sat on the shoulders of a child whose face was still youthful but whose body was huge, and who had the same round head. The father and son seemed to have switched places for the photograph, but there was no less love between them. Hagrid sniffled as he spoke of his worries for his father, who went into the mountains during the bitter winter months. In broken fragments, he spoke of his background. "My mum was a G-Giant, one of those brutal Giants from the newspapers! But my dad still loved me very much. Every winter, he went into the mountains to look for Mum. I'd rather... rather have been an ordinary Muggle! Then I could've caused Dad less trouble."

McGonagall and Augusta, who had still been glaring at each other, now radiated maternal warmth as they patted Hagrid's shoulder and comforted him. Flitwick looked sympathetic as well, and even Tom wore an expression of shock and pity.

"I have a camera that can develop color photographs." Nelson stood on tiptoe and rubbed the head of Hagrid, who was curled up on the chair. "Your photograph is rather old. I'll take a new one for you another day."

"Really?" Hagrid raised his head with a delighted cry. Tears still crisscrossed his face, making him look utterly comical.

"Hagrid." Tom, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention. "You mustn't tell anyone else about this."

In the run-down outskirts of the West End, evening had come, but the sky looked no different from when the two of them had left that morning.

"Honestly, I regret it. I'd rather have people think I'm a pervert."

"I'd still rather die from exhaustion."

The two set down their armfuls of packages and sat on a mailbox by the roadside to rest. Seeing how hard they were struggling, McGonagall had wanted to lend Nelson her little bag enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm. But when he saw that exquisite ladies' handbag decorated with a pink cat made of pearls, he had righteously refused. At that moment, he regretted his decision more than ever. "I've decided. As soon as term begins, I'm going to learn the Undetectable Extension Charm."

"I thought the stories of orphans like us were already miserable and bizarre enough." Tom fanned himself with a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which Flitwick had given him because he was interested in it. He waved it like the clumsy way a country squire's daughter in a small Welsh village might wave the feather fan her father had brought back from town, then sighed in the tone of an old man who had seen the world. "I didn't expect today to show us what real hardship looked like."

"Of course. With magic around, there can't possibly be fewer strange things than in the Muggle world."

"True. In the Muggle world, the most unpredictable thing might be the human heart. But in the magical world, who knows what could be even more absurd?"

"That's true." Nelson agreed deeply, then asked curiously, "I didn't expect you to care about Hagrid."

"Am I really such a cold person?" Tom asked in return, then explained, "I just think he's a little like me... He's a Giant in the Wizarding world, and I'm a Wizard in the Muggle world. I think that without you, I would have become like him."

"Tom..."

"Feared by the ordinary people around me, isolated, even bullied," Tom continued on his own. "Maybe I would have been stronger than him, not so weak, but I don't think I would have become the person I am now."

"I'm not an idiot, Nal." Tom lowered his head. "I know what you're worried about. I don't know why you have those concerns, but I think you misjudged me this time."

"Tom, I only—"

"Shh!" Tom suddenly grabbed Nelson's arm, raised an index finger to his lips, and listened intently. "She's here!"

"What's here?" Seeing him like that, Nelson held his breath and tried to listen as well. But all he could hear was the howling wind and, from the distant factory, the faint sounds of boilers burning and Gear grinding. Just as he was about to speak, Tom drew his Wand.

"She's here."

"She?"

"Do you remember that snake? I said it used to be a person."

"I remember. What, was it a woman too?" Nelson suspected Tom might be hallucinating, but then he saw Tom stuff everything on the ground into the abandoned mailbox beneath him, close its lid, and tap it with his Wand. Making strange hissing sounds, Tom tugged Nelson's arm and headed toward another street. Nelson had no choice but to follow.

"Yes, it was a woman."

"Tom, I think—"

"I didn't lie to you. She's in the underground pipes beneath our feet right now." Tom explained rapidly. "Her story is very complete. I think it's true. She used to be human, but she was afflicted by an irreversible Dark Magic. It fuses a person's soul with a beast, eventually turning them completely into an animal."

"A Blood Malediction? That snake is a Maledictus?!" Nelson recalled the legends of a dangerous circus he had read about in tabloids.

"That's right! Her name is Nagini!"

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