Fudge returned to the Ministry of Magic thoroughly pleased with his visit to Hogwarts.
The trip had cost him plenty. He had even given away one of the Ministry's finest Undetectable Extension Bags, but he still couldn't stop smiling.
Fudge was genuinely happy.
Once he returned to the Ministry, the Daily Prophet would start building up his reputation.
With the endorsement of Isaac, the young wizard who had subdued Death Eaters before even starting school, Fudge couldn't begin to guess how much public support he would gain.
Compared with his political standing, neither a thousand Galleons nor a premium Ministry Undetectable Extension Bag mattered.
Those were resources he could draw on as Minister for Magic.
Grabbing at those resources for himself would be the height of stupidity. Anyone who did that would never reach the office of Minister for Magic.
A Minister for Magic might be mediocre at magic, but no minister was a fool.
Even one who looked like a fool was bound to have his own reasons.
Take Fudge in the original timeline. With so much hard evidence that Voldemort had returned, why had he refused to admit it?
Because admitting it would undo all the work he had done over the years to strip Dumbledore of his influence at the Ministry.
He would become Dumbledore's yes-man again.
After tasting power, how could Fudge willingly give up what he had gained?
For a while, Fudge had been the "bravest" man in the British Wizarding World—as long as Voldemort wasn't standing in front of him, spitting in his face.
He would have ground his back teeth to dust before admitting Voldemort was alive.
After Fudge left, Dumbledore introduced Isaac to the Four Heads of House in the Great Hall.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout were warm toward Isaac, and he responded to both with equal enthusiasm.
Set aside their positions as Heads of House and consider what they actually taught.
Flitwick taught Charms and was a master duelist. If Isaac wanted practical combat guidance, he couldn't go wrong visiting Professor Flitwick.
Then there was Professor Sprout.
The Hufflepuff professor had less of a role in the books than Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape, but Isaac had no reason to respect her any less.
She taught Herbology, after all.
As a Head of House and Herbology professor at Hogwarts, who knew how many rare magical plants Professor Sprout had at her disposal?
Snape might be a Potions Master, but without Professor Sprout's ingredients, what would he use to brew his potions?
Unlike those two welcoming professors, Snape wore the same lifeless expression as ever.
He didn't seem interested in Isaac, and Isaac wasn't nearly as good at drawing Snape's hatred as Harry was.
The history between Snape and James Potter was a hopeless tangle of grudges and emotions.
Harry's misfortune was that, while he had Lily's eyes, those were the only feature he had inherited from his mother.
People said sons took after their mothers, but that hadn't held true for Harry.
In class, and sometimes around the school, Snape had to look at his enemy's face—with Lily's eyes staring out of it.
No wonder he was always in a foul mood.
Fortunately, Harry wasn't at the school yet.
Professor Snape had no reason to fly into a rage, and besides, didn't Isaac have some connection to Dumbledore?
Snape had to show Dumbledore at least a little consideration.
The way Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and Professor Snape treated him hadn't struck Isaac as strange.
Professor McGonagall's manner, on the other hand, left him thoroughly puzzled.
Her searching, curious gaze and the words she seemed to be holding back were enough to make him itch with uncertainty.
Isaac had seen that expression before.
While busking in London, he had once seen a neighbor from his street run into a friend while out with a child.
Neither the neighbor nor his friend was remarkable.
The remarkable part was the child. He called the neighbor "Dad," but Isaac was certain he had never seen the boy at the neighbor's house.
The friend had looked at the neighbor exactly the way McGonagall was now looking at Isaac.
So... what was he to her? A mistake Dumbledore had made?
Despite her peculiar expression, Professor McGonagall told him he could come to her office with any questions about Transfiguration.
And so Isaac began writing his papers before the school year had even started.
He went to the Hogwarts library and borrowed Transfiguration Today and Spell Innovation, leading journals in Transfiguration and Charms respectively.
Once he had worked out their formatting requirements, Isaac began writing a paper for each field.
Thanks to Grindelwald's thorough instruction, Isaac understood his version of Protego Fiendfyre inside and out.
That made the papers easy to write.
Compared with the articles in Transfiguration Today, Isaac's Transfiguration paper was a little shallow, but its approach to shaping natural elements was novel.
Only after reading Transfiguration Today and receiving Professor McGonagall's guidance did Isaac learn that a wizard with sufficiently advanced Transfiguration could shape natural elements with ease.
For wizards less accomplished in Transfiguration, however, shaping natural elements was much harder.
The Transfiguration involved in the Protego Fiendfyre Grindelwald had taught Isaac offered a shortcut between those two extremes.
With that method, even wizards whose Transfiguration skills fell short could attempt to shape natural elements.
They simply couldn't do it as easily or deftly as a master of Transfiguration.
Isaac's Transfiguration paper might have been a modest piece of work, but Protego Fiendfyre was a genuinely new spell.
Grindelwald had never submitted his original Protego Fiendfyre to Spell Innovation.
Delighting in the prospect of mischief, Isaac wrote down the imitation version of Protego Fiendfyre without holding anything back.
He described the prerequisites for learning it and the precautions to take while practicing in meticulous detail.
He couldn't wait for Protego Fiendfyre to catch on in Britain and slowly spread across Europe.
What expressions would the surviving European wizards who had seen Grindelwald's original "gas burner" wear when they saw this knockoff?
It was a shame most of them weren't in Britain.
As for whether publishing Protego Fiendfyre in Spell Innovation would cause Isaac any trouble...
It wouldn't. Isaac's Protego Fiendfyre and Grindelwald's Version were entirely different things.
The latter embodied the magical prowess of a legendary wizard; the former was little more than a parlor trick.
At heart, it was just a Fire-Making Spell with flashy effects.