"The Raven won't let this go," Lehende said. "I don't know what kind of position this so called Third Senator holds, but he's definitely not ordinary. If he's been badly hurt, it means the Raven are going to pay even more attention to us."
Leonard shook his head.
"Sorry, but the ones they'll be watching are you and your family. I'm not in that group. And just to remind you, every Raven member who saw me is dead."
"Uh… fine, that's true," Lehende said, a little awkward. "But don't get too optimistic. This place is close to where Cappadocia was attacked. He must have realized there was a third party involved. He…"
"He would rather die than believe the person who nearly killed him was a twelve year old Hogwarts second year student," Leonard said with a shrug. "And I doubt he wants to admit it, either."
He added, "I'm glad to have you as an ally, but you have to understand, compared to you, who are already in the open, I'm still in the shadows."
Lehende clicked his tongue, helpless.
"You're not wrong…"
"So the key is that we don't stick together for no reason," Leonard said flatly. "Once today is over, you need to get out of here as fast as possible. Otherwise, as long as Cappadocia isn't an idiot, he's going to start suspecting me."
"Oh?" Lehende raised his brows. "So you're calling off the wager?"
"How could I?" Leonard's voice shot up. "Even if you die, the wager still doesn't count as settled."
"Can't you say something nicer?"
"No. Not unless you hand over those endangered magical plants immediately."
"Hey, be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable," Leonard said, shaking his head. "I'm happy enough to be allies, but the best way for us to 'cooperate' right now is to stay out of each other's way, so nobody realizes we're connected."
"But what's the point of being allies if we don't help each other?" Lehende protested.
"Not exposing me counts as helping," Leonard said. "As for how I help you…"
He scratched his chin.
"…maybe we shouldn't be allies at all."
One of them lived in France long term, the other in England. What was the point of this alliance?
By the time you wrote a letter asking for help, the other side might already be dead by the time it arrived. Summon them over to collect the body?
And Leonard was still a miserable student. He had classes every day. Even if Lehende's letter arrived in time, Leonard would still have to check whether he had class that day.
What kind of alliance was that supposed to be?
Lehende clearly realized it too. He rubbed the back of his head, at a loss.
"Actually, I'm pretty safe in France," Lehende said. "I have a lot of friends. There are plenty of good friends living around me. If the Raven want to get to me, they can only do it when I'm abroad."
"Exactly," Leonard said with a sigh. "So we don't need an alliance. You don't really need me. All I need is for you not to drag me into the light. Our 'alliance' is so loose it barely exists. There's no need for joint action at all."
Lehende thought for a moment.
"Maybe we can take the initiative and look for the Raven."
"That's fine in theory," Leonard said, spreading his hands. "But other than the times they show up right in front of you, have you ever seen them at any other time?"
"Uh… no."
"Then there you go," Leonard said, sighing. "Forget it. Let's just treat it like we made a friend."
"But you care about the Raven, don't you?" Lehende asked. "Even if they don't appear, you still don't want something like that lurking in the background, watching you. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Then we can't give up. Finding the Raven needs to stay on the agenda," Lehende said. "If we're allies, we can at least exchange information. I'll ask my friends to help search. And you…"
"Me?" Leonard narrowed his eyes. "Ask my classmates if they've seen the Raven? Don't be ridiculous."
Lehende nearly choked on his own spit.
"Ahem… Hogwarts isn't only students," he said quickly. "There's the library. You can look there."
"Fine. I'll keep an eye out," Leonard said, nodding.
In truth, Leonard was not as helpless as he made himself sound. He had an intelligence network.
The werewolf wizards were his network. Even though they had begun to rise, they still had not left the shadowy corners where they had first taken root.
Those places were where information flowed most densely. Any leak, any whisper, would reach there first.
You could say that no movement in the British wizarding world escaped the werewolf wizards' notice.
Still, Leonard did not fully trust Lehende. "Ally" was just a word for now. Without real time and real dealings, Leonard would not truly trust anyone.
Even with Midgard, it had taken him half a year before he gradually revealed his strength.
As for Lehende, he would keep him on the line for now. Maybe things would change later.
"You'd better be careful when you investigate," Lehende reminded him after thinking it over. "Even if we believe you haven't been targeted, that doesn't mean there aren't Raven people around you. Don't make a big show of it, or you'll end up being marked."
Leonard nodded.
"That's reasonable. Don't worry, I'll be careful."
Careful enough not to investigate at all. He would leave that to the werewolf wizards and simply reap the results.
As for Raven people appearing around him...
He was not even sure he would recognize them.
Leonard might be a transmigrator who had read the entire Harry Potter series, but it had never mentioned the Raven, much less who belonged to them.
For all he knew, someone he was used to seeing could secretly be one of the Raven.
Leonard fell into thought. When he got nowhere trying to guess who was most likely to be connected to the Raven, his mind drifted.
He thought about the Mr. Delacour sitting beside him.
In the original story, there was no mention of Lehende being attacked. If the Raven had captured him, then Fleur probably would not have been spared, either.
Without Leonard's help, the Delacour family would not have escaped today.
Was the Raven supposed to be kind enough to send Fleur back to Beauxbatons to continue school? What a joke. They would have taken the Delacour family precisely to avoid exposure. How could they do something that would expose them?
Something was wrong.
Leonard suddenly realized that the story seemed to be shifting in subtle ways he had not noticed.
But how could his existence affect the fourth year Triwizard Tournament?
What, exactly, had gone wrong?