Chapter 71: Receiving the Wind and Washing Away the Dust
In Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Florean himself sat bored behind the counter.
Although the start of the school year was approaching and business should have been picking up, mornings were usually quiet. Eating ice cream for breakfast wasn't something most wizarding parents encouraged, which gave Florean time to relax.
He didn't particularly love his job. The shop had been passed down through his family, and he hadn't found much else to do. It was his own store, rent-free, and he got by well enough. What he truly enjoyed was chatting with customers—especially helping young witches and wizards with their homework. He had a wealth of knowledge in magical history.
He knew not only the commonly discussed tales like the witch burnings of the Middle Ages but also more obscure legends—such as the truth behind the Elder Wand and the mystery of Ravenclaw's diadem.
Today, however, was peculiar. Three young wizards had arrived early that morning. According to Florean's observations, it was difficult to determine their relationship.
The boy, a strikingly handsome wizard, seemed close to both of the girls. They didn't behave like childhood friends, and they certainly weren't siblings. The dark-haired witch seemed to have a crush on both the boy and the tall, blonde girl—beyond what could be called mere friendship.
Stranger still, the blonde girl seemed to share similar feelings toward the dark-haired one.
"How odd... Which two of them are actually a pair?" Florean wondered, curiously watching them.
But the oddest part wasn't their complicated relationships. It was that none of them had spoken a single word in the twenty minutes since they arrived.
—
It had been nearly two months since their undersea adventure. When Alexander Smith returned to Castle Smith, he had used the Lord God's power to reorganize the entire layout.
Magically speaking, Castle Smith was a fortress—impervious even to Lord Voldemort, who had been repelled three times. But structurally, it was a mess. The castle wasn't built in a single generation; instead, generations of the Smith family had contributed to it over millennia, filling in gaps and patching flaws.
The arrangement had never been optimal.
For instance, the plantations and pastures should have been placed closer to the castle itself, to prevent enemies from poisoning their food. The outermost towers—ideal for receiving mail—were built into a deep canyon that was inaccessible by flight during wartime. Any wizard foolish enough to attempt an attack would be teleported there and thrown into an endless trap.
After resolving these logistical issues, Penelope finally returned from France in early September, just before school started. Kate had written frequent letters in the meantime, subtly hinting that she wanted to discuss Atlantis.
To welcome Penelope home, the three of them agreed to meet at Florean's Ice Cream Parlour at 8:15 a.m. on Monday, August 15.
The moment they saw each other again, Alexander felt a wave of relief.
Penelope hadn't been tanned by the French summer sun. He remembered how Hermione, in the original books, had gone to France one summer and came back tanned. Thankfully, Penelope remained just as fair as ever.
That thought made him chuckle.
In his previous life, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had premiered at the Palace Theatre in London. Set nineteen years after Harry defeated Voldemort, it depicted the trio as adults. Harry worked tirelessly at the Ministry of Magic and had three school-age children.
J.K. Rowling, as one of the co-authors, had made Hermione black in the stage play—for the sake of political correctness. Yet in the original books, Hermione had always been white. How could a black person even get a tan?
True inclusivity wasn't about forcibly inserting diversity into existing stories. It meant writing equal and meaningful stories for all people—at the right time and place.
Later, Rowling opposed the idea of transgender individuals infringing on women's rights, which sparked backlash. She was 'canceled,' banned from certain platforms, and even erased from major Harry Potter fan sites.
Now she had fallen victim to the same political correctness she once enabled. "Oh, my poor Hermione," Alexander thought, as he warmly hugged Penelope, lost in his own tangents.
But Penelope wasn't going to let him off easily. Before he knew it, Alexander found himself dragged into another one of her elaborate mental games.
"Damn it. This must be Kate's idea," he muttered.
And so, a new thinking game began—this time set in the depths of the sea, drawing inspiration from their previous trip. Penelope and Kate appeared as mermaids, while Alexander took the form of Aquaman from his past life.
Both girls blushed at the scene. The beautiful underwater world around them couldn't distract them from the way they looked in their new forms. Alexander, however, was delighted.
All the physical details had come from Kate and Penelope's subconscious, making them indistinguishable from reality.
"Alexander, where are the weapons?" Kate asked, clearly hoping for something dramatic.
"Do you really need to guess what a mermaid's weapon is?" Alexander pointed to a creature swimming nearby.
It was a Loba worm, about ten inches long.
"The Loba worm is a marine creature that lives in the North Sea," he explained. "It's simple in structure—just a flexible nozzle and a venom sac."
"When threatened, it compresses the sac and releases venom to ward off enemies. What's more, the venom doesn't disperse in water and won't harm anything unintentionally. Mermaids use them like water guns."
Penelope recited the facts smoothly, ears slightly red—likely trying to distract herself from what she was (or wasn't) wearing.
"Do either of you speak Mermish?" Alexander asked.
"No," Kate replied.
"Mermish sounds screechy and harsh on land, but underwater, it's beautiful and melodic," Alexander continued. "Miranda Goshawk's Book of Spells was translated into seventy-two languages—one of which was Mermish."
Penelope was still out of it. She sounded more like a search engine than a person—answering questions, but not really present.
"Just say no," Alexander teased.
"In this game," he continued, "you earn a new word in Mermish every time you shoot down a Grindylow."
"And, there's also a chance to get summon cards." He conjured a glowing gold-edged card in his hand. It shimmered blue and depicted a creature with the front half of a horse and the tail of a fish.
"A sea kelpie," Kate guessed.
"What's it do?" she asked.
"It boosts your speed—so you can catch the increasingly fast Grindylows."
"Shouldn't the card be green?" Penelope added, sounding more like a Ravenclaw than ever.
"Alright, enough talk. Game start!" Alexander declared.
With a flick of his wand, both Penelope and Kate received their own Loba worms.
The underwater battle had begun.
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