ii

It was in the middle of the morning of August 7, and the orphanage had just celebrated Kazui's birthday. Even though the orphanage had enough budget to celebrate every orphan's birthday every year, for Kazui who had lived for more than three thousand years, he had celebrated more than enough.

As the kids are cleaning their breakfast, one of the workers had entered the dining room and scanned the area, looking for someone.

"Ah! Kazui, you have a visitor. Sister Iris had brought her to the matron; you should go to her office as well." The worker said to Kazui as soon as she found him.

"All right. Thanks for the heads up, Sister Joan." The worker called Sister Joan just smiled and return to her duties. Kazui, after asking the younger kids to cover for his share of work in exchange for a story telling session, took off as well.

===

Sister Iris, who was leading a clearly suspicious person in a robe and pointed hat, arrived at the matron's office. Even though she doesn't show it, she's clearly doesn't like the person she's being escorted, especially since she came for their lucky star, Kazui. Since she neither have the authority nor power to send her away, Sister Iris can only lead her to the matron. And lead her she did, as she knocked onto the door to inform the matron of their arrival.

"Matron, we have a visitor who calls herself Professor McGonagall. Said she's here for Kazui." Sister Iris said respectfully towards the matron. Almost immediately, a reply came from the other side of the door.

"Please let her in."

Sister Iris, even though she fully respect the matron with all her heart, begrudgingly opened the door and directed the weirdo inside.

"Please get inside. Well then, matron." As soon as the visitor went in, Sister Iris bowed to the matron and closed the door before hearing a smile and a thank you from the matron.

The visitor, namely Professor McGonagall, was certainly surprised to see who the matron was. She didn't think that a vicious woman who hunter death eaters like a mad dog more than a decade ago would be signing papers and take care of children in an orphanage.

"It's been a long time, Professor McGonagall. A decade and a year?" Greeted the matron as she continues to read and sign the papers the moment Sister Iris left. Professor McGonagall, now out of shock, returned her greeting.

"It's been a long time indeed, Jasmine Abbott. I didn't think that I out of all places out there, I would find you here." McGonagall sighed with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"It's Wright now, actually. I took my paternal grandmother's name and rebuilt myself here, and using my father's money and connections, found this orphanage with decent reputation and improved it further. And now, here I am." The matron, or rather Jasmine, replied without minding Professor McGonagall at all, still doing her work. What follows is an awkward silence, which was broken by the older woman.

"Jasmine, we're really sorry. There's really noth-", The older woman said apologetically, but was interrupted by the younger one.

"Don't give me that shite, Minerva. Letting murderers, criminals so unforgivable in the eyes of both law and humanity, buy their way out of prison and believing their pathetic excuse of an Imperius, so that Dumbledore could continue playing the forgiving grandfather for everyone. All of this for what, so they could continue poison the already dying Magical Britain?" Jasmine burst out at the old woman, the words becoming even vicious with every word she says.

"That was out of line, Jasmine! All ever Dumbledore wants was the betterment of everyone." The older witch rebutted, defending her employer.

"Right, I forgot you're one of the heavily indoctrinated. For the betterment of everyone? Never heard of a more puke-inducing nonsense in my life. While Dumbledore is busy playing everybody's grandfather, the Magical Britain's Savior, the Boy-Who-Lived, had been starving and settling for hand me downs for eleven years, even up to now." Jasmine snorted. The older witch who was incensed by the earlier statement, is clearly shaken by the following statement.

"Wha-how much do you know? No, it does not matter. If you know Harry Potter's situation, you should have helped him!" This time it was the older witch who is angry.

"And why would I, when the great Dumbledore personally sent him to this torture? Why did you even think I left all of that behind? In case you don't know, what I didn't do for the Potter boy, I did for everyone else. The muggle victims and some half-blood whelp, which you and your Order conveniently forgotten because they don't have any more purpose after Dumbledore's publicity stunt. Fortunately, or unfortunately, one of them still managed to awaken their magic."

The revelation from Jasmine shook McGonagall. The words that came from Jasmine echoed in the older witch's mind, and every time it did, shame and guilt overtake her.

She had a similar conversation with Dumbledore in the past, when the hearing for the released death eaters were over. She did brought the same concern towards Dumbledore because even with all said and done, she IS a half-blood. And then she remembered what Dumbledore told her.

'It's fine, Minerva. The wizard victims will have families that will take care of them. For those who don't, they have been sent to various orphanage throughout the country. I believe that the muggle government do have projects that takes care of orphaned infants until they are adopted or reached adulthood. We can safely leave it to them, but for us, we have a lot of work to do so that in case they arrive at our doorstep when they turn eleven, we are there to give them a warm welcome.'

At that time, she did felt it was a proper response, but now she have doubt.

But…well. Dumbledore didn't indoctrinate her for nothing. She was about to make another argument when they hear a knock on the door.

"Matron. It's me, Kazui. I was told to come."

The older witch swallowed back what she was about to blurt out, in case her new student gain a bad impression of her. Jasmine as well, returned to her professional look.

When the door opened, a kid with an eye-catching hair color greeted McGonagall. In her entire life, she haven't seen someone with orange hair color before, even deliberately dying them with orange. She noticed that he was taller than those of his age were, though. She was about to ask about it when Jasmine spoke first.

"Kazui, this is Professor Minerva McGonagall. She's here regarding about your enrollment to Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall, that is Kazui Kurosaki." Jasmine introduced them to each other and slowly went back to study her documents.

"Oh, right! The magic school. I'd first like to learn about card magic, and the disappearing magic after that. Oh! Let's not forget about the doves either!" Kazui enthusiastically said, clapping his hands at the same time. McGonagall brains though, short-circuited. Her emotions had gone all over the place in such a short amount of time and she couldn't think of a proper response to the kid.

"Stop the nonsense, Kazui." Jasmine's glaring gaze can be seen atop the paper she's holding.

"All right, geez. I was just trying to uplift the mood. I can breathe the awkwardness in the air, you know. I'm not giving up about the cards magic though." Kazui cheekily said, and even though he murmured the last part, which was heard nonetheless seeing the silence in the room.

McGonagall just sighed, and started her standard invitation lines.

"Good morning, Mr. Kazui Kurosaki. I'm Professor Minerva McGonagall of Hogwarts. If you are willing to enroll to our school, I would gladly take you to the Diagon Alley today to have you open an account in Gringotts Banks with Loan Scholarship as per the Muggleborn Wizard Scholarship Law, as well as to buy your school supply." The older witch kindly explain to the to-be student in front of her.

"Knowing how greedy the goblin bastards are, you have to pay at least thrice the amount they have lent. Which is why you'll open a normal account, and you will show this to the head receptionist and have him process your account for you. I'll be sponsoring your entire Hogwarts expenditure until you got bored of it." Jasmine interjected, which gained the attention of the older witch. Jasmine pulled a sealed letter from her drawer and held it out to Kazui.

"What? Just because I left doesn't mean my riches disappeared." Jasmine gave the older witch a snort.

"Okay, okay. You can stop furrowing your brow now, matron. I'll gladly go to Hogwarts, professor. And if it doesn't bother you, I'd be happy to go and shop my school supplies as well. Now, now. Why don't we go now before the matron starts another rant? See you later, matron." Kazui, immediately took the letter and urged the older witch to go out, since he's started to smell blood. Before he closed the door, he left a wink towards Jasmine, and she replied back by rolling her eyes.