Soon enough, Kasen finished wrapping gifts for the three houses at Hogwarts—everyone except Slytherin—and had the owls deliver them in batches.
As for the Slytherin gifts… honestly, they had been prepared long ago, but whether to send them or not was still undecided.
Ever since he had wiped out the Gedil family's records, the Slytherins had developed a rather strange fear of him.
Mm…
Basically on the same level as how Gryffindors avoided Snape.
"So if I send them gifts, will they even accept them? Won't they think it's something like a Middle Eastern alarm clock?"
Kasen muttered to himself, staring at the last stack of silver-and-green wrapping paper. After a moment of silence, he ultimately decided to send them!
He flexed his slightly sore fingers and continued folding the wrapping paper. If only his mechanical arms were still around… wrapping would've been much easier.
His previous mechanical arms had all been destroyed during his one-on-one fight with Voldemort. As for the new ones…
Mm…
They were still in development. The last batch had been too fragile, so this time he planned to use Netherite to make them.
However, due to Netherite's special properties, it couldn't be reshaped directly. It had to be assembled piece by piece from tiny blocks, and the skeletal framework would also need upgrading…
Just thinking about it was already a hassle.
And the actual progress of the research was basically still stuck at… the PPT stage…
Mm…
Just like that, busy Master Kasen worked for another two hours before finally wrapping and sending out all the remaining gifts.
After finishing all that, he picked up the paper version of his new mechanical arm PPT—something like a proposal—and Ender-teleported to the Black family's old house.
With Voldemort wreaking havoc, not only was the Order of the Phoenix gathering at the Black house for safety, but other wizarding communities—Godric's Hollow, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley—almost all of England's wizards were sticking together for protection.
For example, when Kasen arrived, he noticed that the Black house had gained two more members: Mr. and Mrs. Diggory. And since the two of them were here, Cedric was probably upstairs chatting nonsense with the other young wizards.
Sirius, who was sitting on the sofa pretending to read a newspaper like a cultured gentleman, cheered when he saw Kasen return. "Now that everyone's here, can we finally play that game?"
Kasen, who had just arrived, looked completely confused. "What game?"
"Remus learned a game from the Muggle world called Dungeons & Dragons. It's kind of like playing chess on a big map," Mrs. Weasley explained.
"Mm… I played that game when I was a Kid… wait, that game? You're all kids or what?" Kasen said, speechless, like a bored adult mercilessly mocking their taste in games.
After all, he wasn't a child. He had very important things to do, like reforging his mechanical arms to further boost his combat power—so that next time he met Voldemort, he could blow that bastard's head clean off.
Young people should be doing something serious!
…
As Mrs. Weasley stood up, stretched hard, and slowly left the sofa, Kasen—who had just been planning to do something "serious"—noticed no one was eyeing that spot and quickly got up to take over her seat.
This drew a round of eye-rolls from Sirius and Lupin.
"Didn't Professor Kasen say he was going to work on something important? What are you doing here?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes and talking trash.
"Well, you know… I got tired, needed to rest my brain… alright fine, I just saw how happy you all looked playing and got a bit jealous, so I wanted to join too…" Kasen tried to keep up a stubborn front for a moment, but quickly gave in and admitted the truth in a pitiful tone.
"Haha! That's more like it, brother!" Sirius and Lupin laughed in unison, reaching out to high-five him.
"By the way, why haven't I seen Dumbledore today? What's he doing in the kitchen?" Kasen asked suddenly while playing.
"In the kitchen. Ever since he arrived this morning, he's been holed up there with Grindelwald, saying they're going to make some of their specialty dishes—and they're not letting anyone in," Mrs. Weasley replied while playing cards with the Longbottom family.
Kasen briefly imagined the scene in his head—Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the kitchen… If Grindelwald could cook, that was believable.
After all, he had been stuck in Nurmengard for so long. It didn't look like a place with regular prison meals or takeaway delivery, so he must have learned to cook for himself.
But what was Dumbledore doing in the kitchen?
Acting as a fully automated chaos machine?
Even the ingredients wouldn't be safe!
At that thought, Kasen couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing, leaving everyone else at the table completely confused. It was just a game—there was no need to laugh that wildly, right?
Just as Kasen calmed himself and refocused on the game in front of him, three young wizards crept downstairs, moving as quietly as possible, trying not to make a single sound.
They slowly appeared behind Professor Kasen, whispering like demons.
"Professor…"
"Oh? What is it?"
I can only say, you really should come upstairs and take a look. We've prepared a Christmas surprise for you!" Cedric, leading the group, leaned close to Kasen's ear and said.
That single sentence made Kasen break out in goosebumps all over…
"A… surprise?" he turned his head and asked.
Cedric and the Weasley twins nodded.
"You three made it?" Kasen asked again.
"Mm!" They nodded in perfect unison.
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