"Communication Pea?" Fontana frowned. "You didn't see wrong?"
"Of course I didn't!" the little girl said indignantly. "My eyesight is great!"
Fontana fell silent for a moment. When he looked up again, his expression still held unmistakable protectiveness:
"Perhaps Stern has some secrets unknown to others. As a professor, it would not be appropriate for me to investigate too deeply, and I may not fully understand them either. But that absolutely does not mean I can tolerate others 'looking after' my student in this way!"
"You aren't Aurors, nor are you from Congress's Security Department, are you? You might not even be wizards from the United States... So who exactly are you? What do you want with Stern?"
Just as nearly all wizards in Britain graduated from Hogwarts, most American wizards entered Ilvermorny at the age of eleven.
As Ilvermorny's Headmaster, even if Fontana did not remember every student's name, he would at least have some impression of their appearances.
So he recognized at once that these two were not students of his school.
Wade and Antoine exchanged a glance. Then Antoine shrugged and wiped a hand across his face.
When he raised his head again, he had returned to his original appearance. Smiling, he said, "Hello, Mr. Fontana."
Fontana froze.
"You are..." he asked hesitantly. "Professor Antoine Moreau of Salem...?"
They had met at Hogwarts, though they had not spoken much.
Salem Institute had originally been an association founded during the Witch Hunt by persecuted witches, offering shelter to other witches. It later developed into a school. At first, it accepted only girls, and only in the past decade or so had it begun admitting male students.
Most wizards in the United States graduated from Ilvermorny, while the remaining small portion naturally came from Salem.
At the sight of