Ch87. Troubling news

Two days passed since the Quidditch World Cup and Tom spent all of them adjusting the two suitcases to his and Natasha's neutral mana rather than wizarding one. It was a tough job that needed a lot of detailed touches but he had finally finished it.

He had spent two whole days just for slight changes in the items' workings.

If he wanted to reverse engineer them, he would probably be at it for months even with his Sacred Gear simply because the creator himself had no idea how the item actually worked.

It was an unexpected downside of his Sacred Gear and Tom was almost amused by it.

Comprehending the workings of the Evil Pieces was much easier simply because their creator knew how they were supposed to work and why they were supposed to work in that particular manner.

But these suitcases?

Just like every space expansion spell in the wizarding world, it was not based on the wizards' understanding of space but instead came out of a copious amount of experimenting. Bluntly speaking, wizards knew the method they discovered worked this way but they had no idea why.

And because they themselves didn't really know the intricacies behind their lucky spatial manipulation method, Tom's Sacred Gear could not reveal it to him.

That... was ridiculously stupid.

In that case, why would his Sacred Gear reveal to him how devil bloodlines worked in the first place!?

He really had no idea how that worked but...

After pondering about it for an hour, Tom just shrugged and gave up. The situation was what it was. There was no reason to be sad because of it. He just had to exploit it to his best abilities and accept the small limitations it imposed on him.

Whatever...

Still, Vision was extremely useful for refitting the two suitcases to be used with neutral mana. Without it, Tom could have messed up many times along the way, probably even permanently destroying these items.

Tom knew it was not how his Sacred Gear was intended to be used by the big G, but damn it was a great crafting helper.

Both his portable laboratory and Natasha's portable garden were finished and the suitcases that held them still had a copious amount of space free inside.

Newt Scamander made his suitcase into a preserve full of endangered magical species and the suitcases in Tom's hands were not all that different. They held enough space to have an entire city built in them. A garden and a laboratory couldn't cover even one-hundredth of it.

In hindsight, these items were really, but really priceless and it was no wonder Newt did not make or sell more of them. If not him, then Dumbledore would definitely realize the vast number of uses such a thing could have had, both nefarious and admirable ones. No doubt he would advise Newt not to make more of these.

The last thing Tom did to finish his work on the suitcases was to affix each of them onto an unbreakable chain.

The Unbreakable Enchantment was yet another thing that piqued Tom's interest despite it not really being all that unbreakable as its name tried to imply. It made items pretty durable but it was definitely not infallible.

In its normal size, the chain was basically just a small decoration while in the shrunken size, the whole thing could be worn as a necklace, bracelet, or the like.

Tom took his finished and shrunken suitcase necklaces and walked into the living room of his wizarding tent, almost running into Natasha in the middle of the door.

"Good morning, Natalia." Tom smiled at her when the initial shock expired, "Look at what's finished!" He waved the results of his hard work like an excited child. Childish or not, Tom was too excited to care.

"Oh! Is that?" Natasha widened her eyes as she realized the small decoration on the necklace looked similar to a suitcase and instantly hugged Tom due to her sheer excitement. "That's great!"

She was already looking forward to some gardening but then she realized why she was about to enter Tom's laboratory in the tent and pulled away from the hug, "I also have some news. An owl brought us a letter from Hermione."

If there was a thing that could dampen Tom's excitement from his achievement, this was it. Still, he was a bit hopeful that his cousin would gain some common sense and realize she was being foolish.

"Where is it?" Tom asked as he handed Natasha her suitcase garden necklace while he hung his suitcase laboratory necklace on his neck.

"I've left it on the table." Natasha said, leading Tom towards the letter.

When they reached the table, they sat on the chairs and Tom took the envelope, and opened it. Two things instantly spilled onto the table. The letter and...

"Is that a newspaper?" Natasha confusedly asked, wondering why that would be included.

"Well, the answer as to why she sent it will probably be in the letter." Tom hummed and started silently reading the letter.

Natasha patiently waited and observed as Tom's eyes started to progressively twitch more and more... but she held her curiosity back and only decided to speak when he put the letter down, looking very unamused.

"So... I guess your expression means that Hermione did not gain much common sense during the past two days?" Natasha nonchalantly asked, trying to lighten the mood as her lips curled into an involuntarily smirk while Tom's eye twitched yet again.

"The whole letter is her basically smugly and haughtily describing why exactly she was right and our actions at the World Quidditch Cup were a mistake. She is backing her claims up by referencing the article in the Daily Prophet." Tom dryly deadpanned. "Oh, and she demands an apology from us."

"Damn... she is such a teenager." Natasha started involuntarily chuckling due to Tom's dry expression. She really didn't mean to but... she was just having great fun at the expense of Tom's troubles whether she wanted to or not.

Neither knew what exactly was in the Daily Prophet yet but if it gave Hermione this kind of confidence, Tom wasn't looking forward to it, considering what rubbish the entire wizarding press was.

"Only the last five sentences are different." Tom sighed, "Apparently, Hermione's head of house from her school wants to meet us since we are now acting defacto in loco parents for her. The meeting will be next Wednesday here in the Leaky Cauldron." He added, thinking it was frankly rude.

He knew that McGonagal probably had a tight schedule but not even asking if they were free? The woman totally treated them as if they were some muggles...

Well, nothing he could do about that so his eyes fell upon the accursed newspaper.

Knowing the more he delays it, the more anxious he will be, Tom took the Daily Prophet and started reading... before instantly scowling the second he saw the headline.

Just from that, his day was ruined and his plans significantly derailed. Hell, if he didn't act quickly, their entire position could implode on itself in this community!

Nevertheless, he continued to silently read until he was finished. He then wearily sighed and handed the newspaper to the very curious Natasha and beckoned her to read it herself.

Tom really wasn't in the mood to explain what was happening.

Natasha read the article, her face growing less and less amused and more and more expressionless by the second and when she finished, she gently put the newspaper on the table, her eyes heavy as she looked at Tom, "What are we going to do?"

Even if she didn't know much about the Wizarding Society, she understood that this was an extremely serious matter. Hermione only sent them the newspaper as proof of her opinion being right but by doing so, she inadvertently warned them of a possible catastrophe ahead of time.

Neither of them had a subscription to the Daily Prophet so at best they would find out when it was too late.

In a way, this was a perfect move against them in the current situation.

"I was banking on Fudge's greed but I guess Malfoy's home advantage holds true. A real pity. To think he would gamble like this..." Tom ruefully said before his disappointed brown orbs looked Natasha straight into her shining green eyes full of seriousness, "I am sorry, Natalia. It looks like your talents will be required sooner rather than later, after all."

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Author Note:

Ha! Not telling you what's going on. Just wait for the next chapter!

The joys of being the author...