Harry had always possessed an exceptionally resilient mindset; as the saying goes, we will cross that bridge when we get to it, and things will straighten themselves out in the end.
This matter regarding Voldemort was not something he needed to dwell on right now, so he chose not to think about it.
That night, as he lay in bed, his mind still wandered, pondering where exactly Voldemort might have gone. Although he was a man of good spirits, he was also someone who held a grudge. Where on earth could he be? With these thoughts drifting through his mind, Harry's eyelids began to fight a losing battle.
When he opened his eyes again, he discovered that at some point, Veratia had climbed into bed beside him. He reached out and nudged her, but Veratia was still half-asleep. upon being pushed, she let out a soft whimper and cooed in a languid, sugary voice, "Don't fuss, Harry... let me rest a bit properly..."
It was evident that she was indeed exhausted. She hadn't rested well for so many days, having thrown herself wholeheartedly into government affairs; she truly deserved a good relaxation. Yawning, Harry walked into the bathroom to wash up. After coming out, he glanced at Veratia, who was still catching up on sleep, and left the room.
"Yo." Sirius happened to be passing by and, seeing Harry, asked with a cheerful grin, "How come you're up so early today? I remember you never used to get out of bed before six-thirty."
"Not sleepy," Harry scratched the back of his head. "I slept very fully last night, and I slept for quite a while on the train, so I'm really not tired now."
Sirius eyed Harry, thinking to himself, You slept so soundly on Cassandra's thighs, it's no wonder you don't look tired.
"Then get ready for breakfast," Sirius patted Harry on the shoulder. "Go wake the others, and also..."
"Better not call her," Harry whispered. "Veratia came over sometime during the night; she's catching up on sleep right now."
"Oh." Sirius nodded, smoothly changing his tune. "Then there's no rush. We'll just push breakfast back an hour—by the way, do you plan to go to the beach today? or is there somewhere else you want to go?"
"I don't know," Harry spread his hands. "The beach should have plenty of fun things to do, right? I saw people surfing there. Maybe I can go try it out with Cassandra later."
He was actually quite tempted; surfing was a sport he had never experienced. As a Quidditch player, he had experienced high-speed flight through the sky, but the sensation of riding the wind and waves on the sea was something he had yet to try.
Before long, everyone began to wake up one after another, though Veratia was still missing.
"Let's eat first," Harry said. "She probably needs to sleep a while longer. She looked very tired; she must have been incredibly busy at the Ministry of Magic recently."
After breakfast, the group conferred and decided there was no need for everyone to eat together for every meal; people could group up and choose restaurants at will based on what they wanted to eat. However, this flexibility was mostly limited to the Muggle-born or adaptable families. Traditional wizarding families like the Weasleys and the Malfoys were not adept at dealing with Muggles, so it was best for them to stick with the main group. However, the Weasleys and the Grangers had a good relationship and could look out for each other, so Sirius didn't need to worry about them. The Malfoy family followed Sirius to eat, though judging by Lucius's demeanor, he was actually quite interested in Mr. Granger's various whimsical ideas.
It wasn't until noon that Veratia finally crawled out of bed. She looked utterly exhausted; her usually shimmering golden hair had turned a withered white, plastering against her face, completely devoid of luster.
"What happened to you?" Harry asked in surprise.
"So tired..." Veratia said in a cloying voice, opening her arms. "I want a hug—"
Harry stepped forward and opened his arms to embrace Veratia. She felt substantial; holding the well-proportioned, tall beauty really evoked a certain feeling. Inhaling the fragrance on Veratia's body, Harry felt that with this one embrace, he was holding the entire world. Thinking about it, that wasn't far from the truth—after all, Veratia was now the Minister of the Greater German Ministry of Magic, an existence who could make the world tremble with a stomp of her foot. One should never underestimate the power of the wizarding world.
"What's wrong with you?" Harry was actually seeing Veratia reveal such a demeanor for the first time. To be honest, it didn't feel bad; he actually quite liked it.
"Very tired," Veratia said in a muffled voice.
In Harry's line of sight, Veratia's white hair turned back to that glittering golden color almost in an instant, looking very beautiful. He reached out and covered Veratia's slightly curled hair; the texture was as silky as the world's most expensive silk.
"Is it finished? The matters at the Ministry?" Harry asked softly.
"Mhm, everything I needed to do is done. The rest can be left to Miss Farley," Veratia said sweetly.
Far away in Vienna, organizing documents, Miss Farley suddenly let out a loud sneeze. That's not right, she thought. It's summer, why am I sneezing? Miss Farley pulled her clothes tighter around herself. What ghostly weather.
"So, you can come vacation with us?" Harry asked with a smile.
"Of course." Veratia gave him a pair of beautiful rolled eyes. "Here, this is a gift I brought you. Try it on, see if it fits."
From who knows where, she pulled out a formal suit and handed it to Harry. Harry took the suit, looked it over, and said to Veratia, "Wait a moment then, I'll go to the bathroom to change—"
Before he could walk out, he was stopped by Veratia.
"Wait!" Veratia rolled her eyes cutely. "It's not like I haven't seen it before. What are you being shy for? I'm not even shy—just change right here!"
"That's a bit inappropriate, isn't it?" Harry scratched his head.
"Nothing inappropriate about it. Change," Veratia sat on the chair, crossing her legs high.
"Alright then." Harry thought there was logic to it; if the lady wasn't shy, why should he, a grown man, be shy? He took off his clothes and changed into the formal suit. When he turned around, he saw Veratia's eyes light up.
"Truly worthy of being my boy!" Veratia walked over with a beaming smile and gave him another big hug. Then, she tilted her head up and planted a light kiss on Harry's lips.
Yes, Harry had grown up now; he was already a head taller than Veratia. It was no longer that "reverse height difference" dynamic. Aroused by the moment, Harry's hands sank lower, cupping Veratia's legs and lifting her up, pinning her against the wall.
"Oh~" Veratia revealed a vixen-like smile. "It seems you can't wait, my Harry... So, do you plan to let me eat food first, or let me eat... you?"
Before her voice had faded, a knock sounded at the door.
"Harry."
It was Cassandra.
"Or," Veratia lowered her body and whispered into Harry's ear, "I could tie Cassandra up and let her watch how I eat you?"
"This... this is..."
You don't say—although Harry instinctively felt it was improper, he was actually quite excited by the thought. Don't speak of it, that's too stimulating.
"This is what?" Veratia lowered her head and gently bit Harry's earlobe.
Harry shivered and hurriedly let go of this great enchantress. No, no. He took two deep breaths; they couldn't do something like that.
Walking to the door, Harry opened it, and sure enough, Cassandra was standing outside. She was wearing a black outfit today, with a long skirt past her knees and a pair of small leather boots on her feet. As a wizard, especially a wizard with high magical power, she didn't care much about the temperature; magic could compensate for any discomfort caused by the heat.
"It seems you have a guest?" Cassandra's lips curled up, her eyes lighting up noticeably.
"Er, it's Veratia," Harry said. "She must have arrived last night? I don't know, anyway, when I woke up this morning, she was already sleeping beside me."
"Oh." Cassandra nodded, elongating the sound meaningfully. "It seems I came at a bad time? Harry?"
"No, you came at the exact right time." Harry reached out and caught Cassandra's small hand. "Come in, let's chat together... We haven't sat down and had a good talk like this in a long time."
"Is that so?" Cassandra crossed her arms and huffed. "Since you've put it that way, I'll reluctantly come in and chat with you—"
Walking into the room, Cassandra was still critiquing: "It seems your Ms. Grindelwald—allow me to call her that, since she is the Minister of Magic now, quite the hot topic—still loves you very much. Look, she even buys you clothes."
There was absolutely no sarcasm in those words, or at least that's what Cassandra believed.
"Yes," Veratia said smilingly from the inner room. "At least I wouldn't give Harry second-hand clothes that I've worn myself. Don't you agree, Harry?"
Harry suddenly felt that letting Cassandra in was a mistake; these two women started trading barbed remarks the moment they met... No good, my head is going to explode.
Hearing Veratia's words, Cassandra's small face instantly sank. Yes, I gave Harry old clothes, so what?
"Hey," Harry tugged at Cassandra's clothes. "Actually, I was really grateful to Cassandra back then. If she hadn't given me clothes to wear, I might not have had anything to wear at all. Think about it, when I was back a hundred years ago, I was basically alone and helpless..."
"Yes," Veratia rested her chin on her hand. "Of course I know that story—here, your good Cassie not only gave you clothes to wear but also used her father's authority as a school governor to allocate quite a bit of scholarship money to you, right?"
"So what if I did?" Cassandra crossed her arms and huffed. "Unlike someone whose princess tiara was hung up in a tree and had to rely on Harry to help her get it down—isn't that right?"
Veratia maintained her smiling expression: "Right, I never got around to thanking Miss Malfoy for speaking up for me back then..."
"So this is how you thank me?" Cassandra's face suddenly darkened. If this matter hadn't been mentioned, fine, but bringing it up made her tremble with anger. Excuse me? Is this how you thank me?
I kindly spoke up for you out of a sense of justice, and this is the result? Are our sisterly feelings like a plastic flower? Fake, but never withering? You jerk, not only did you not take a sister's feelings to heart, but you also set your sights on the piglet she was raising, not hesitating to travel thousands of miles to the UK, studying in a foreign land just to steal that piglet away...
Too much of a scoundrel, simply too much!
"I can also thank you in another way."
As Veratia spoke, she stood up and walked to Cassandra's side. She extended an arm and pressed it against the wall behind Cassandra, assuming a very standard Kabedon wall-pinning stance.
"So?" Veratia asked with a smile. "Do you... wish for me to express my gratitude to you?"
"W-what are you doing?" Cassandra was clearly unable to handle this. No, you woman, speak if you want to speak, what's the meaning of leaning in so close...
Veratia leaned into Cassandra's ear and blew gently. Cassandra felt herself go instantly soft, like a noodle, almost unable to stand steadily.
"Alright, alright, stop bullying Cassie." Harry hurriedly stepped forward, reached out to hold Cassandra, and helped her sit to the side. He turned his head, looking at the triumphant Veratia with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. "Look at you..."
"What about me?" Veratia asked back with a grin. "Did I do something wrong? I was just expressing my thanks to Cassie..."
Harry had made his assessment: Veratia was purely a bad woman. Sitting on the sofa, Cassandra remained silent, her small hand tightly gripping Harry's arm. When her eyes looked at Veratia, they were practically spitting fire. This woman is too shameless! She thought viciously in her heart.
"How about we go eat?" Harry, seeing the awkward atmosphere, proposed. "Let's invite Poppy along. What do you think? I heard yesterday that there's a restaurant that makes good oysters. Remember that Maupassant novel you showed me back then? The scene on Uncle Jules's boat where the noble ladies ate oysters—I still haven't forgotten it."
Sure enough, distracted by Harry, Cassandra let go of Veratia's transgressive behavior just now.
"Oh, I remember," Cassandra nodded. "I seem to have told you that a qualified pure-blood wizard should also have literary literacy, so—of course, Maupassant counts as one of the writers I quite liked and recommended to you."
"I met Leo Tolstoy," Veratia interjected out of the blue.
Cassandra's small face sank again. "Who asked you!"
"Oh, I'm just stating a fact," Veratia said with a smile. "Besides Tolstoy, I've met quite a few literary giants... You know, my aunt's family has a little bit of influence in the Muggle world. Not just writers, but I've also met quite a few music masters."
She certainly had reason to feel superior; after all, in the nineteenth century, Vienna was the artistic center of the world.
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