Sitting in the room of the pub, Lyla genuinely wanted to slap herself.
'What was I thinking, choosing to waste Luna's time by having her watch these boring things... right after she explicitly expressed her friendliness?'
'Lyla Hamilton, how can you be so shameless as to make someone else waste their time...'
'Wasting time is wasting life! I don't want to waste my friend's life prematurely; if only I could waste mine...'
'After all, I have already lived an extra fifty years...' Lyla thought this subconsciously, her mind spiraling into catastrophic overthinking. She was completely oblivious to Lupin standing at the door.
"Miss Hamilton, you seem very happy?"
"Ah? Am... am I?" Lyla asked timidly.
"Of course." Lupin nodded gently. "Miss Hamilton rarely smiles."
"And, for once, she's not wearing her hood."
"Ugh!" Lyla reacted immediately, violently pulling up her hood to cover her silver hair and pointed ears, which had perked up from happiness.
Looking at Lyla reverting to her usual, terrified self, Lupin subconsciously wondered if he had said too much.
He cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So, what is it about?"
"Is it related to Miss Lovegood?"
"Mm... Mm!" Lyla nodded quickly. "Miss Lovegood... will... will come to watch me conduct Magic Array research later."
"Hm?"
An eleven-year-old girl coming to watch an eighteen-year-old conduct highly advanced studies of engraving self-sustaining magic onto physical objects? How could he be having such a bizarre dream?
However... there shouldn't be many people who understood Magic Array Studies better than this eighteen-year-old girl.
Lupin shook his head and said, "That's wonderful. It's just that I have some matters to attend to these next few days and will be away."
"Is... that so?" Lyla subconsciously felt a little worried. She looked at Lupin's tired appearance, a stark reminder of his werewolf outcast status. She thought for a moment and asked softly, "What... what is it?"
"Ah... I'm sorry, Miss Hamilton." Lupin gave a wry smile.
"I... I should be the one apologizing... Lupin... Mr. Lupin!" Realizing she had been a bit rude, Lyla quickly stood up and bowed. But due to her exaggerated, panicked movement, she bumped her head hard on the back of the chair.
"Ugh!"
Holding her head, Lyla looked at Lupin, who was smiling helplessly. She wished she could just crawl under the table and hide in a corner doing complex array math.
"Well... shall... shall we begin..." Lyla stammered as Lupin left, slowly picking up the quill on the table.
'Is it... is it really this awkward to do research in front of others?'
Lyla pursed her lips and glanced at Luna. The girl, who was usually a bit dreamy, was now exceptionally serious. She sat beside Lyla, meticulously examining the complex Magic Array imprint Lyla had rubbed from Newt's suitcase.
"Where will Lyla engrave it?" Luna's ethereal voice drifted over.
Lyla pursed her lips. "I also want to make... make a... a briefcase like Mr. Scamander's..."
"A briefcase?" Luna tilted her head. "Actually, wouldn't a book be better?"
"A book...?" Lyla was momentarily stunned.
"Yes," Luna smiled softly. "Each page opens... to a different space."
"It sounds just like life."
"Every day is different."
'Don't suddenly say something so philosophical...' Lyla thought. 'I'm the adult here, okay?' But after thinking it over carefully, Luna's idea was indeed better. Compared to a battered briefcase, a book seemed easier to carry and far less conspicuous.
Always carrying a briefcase around Hogwarts and outside... it would be a bit too eye-catching. Lyla didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention; she even wished she could permanently live under an Invisibility Cloak.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Lyla refocused on creating the magic array tool.
"You're right." She nodded softly. "A book is better... The space for engraving a magic array seems a bit smaller compared to a briefcase..."
"But it doesn't need to be disguised like a briefcase..."
"Why would the engraving space be smaller?" Luna asked curiously. "Shouldn't every page be able to..."
"That won't work." Lyla shook her head, slipping effortlessly into her element. "Ordinary paper cannot bear the core runes or auxiliary support spells. It's too easily damaged... If a few pages are accidentally torn off, the whole book might become unusable."
"It's better to engrave it directly on the cover. Even if there's wear and tear, as long as a sufficiently sturdy physical object is chosen, it will be fine, and it's much cheaper than using magic paper."
Seeing her in this uncharacteristic, serious manner, confidently explaining complex magic mechanics, Luna smiled. "Lyla is just like a professor at Hogwarts."
'I am actually a joint DADA Professor at Hogwarts...' Hearing this, Lyla immediately blushed and tightened her hood.
"If all the professors at Hogwarts were like Lyla when I get there, that would be great..." Luna continued. "That way I could pinch each of their ears."
'Don't make those more competent professors turn into me for such a reason...' Lyla mumbled in defense, "You... you don't pinch my ears..."
"They're very... sensitive..."
"Is that so." Luna nodded thoughtfully. "What about the book then?"
"The book?"
"Mm." Luna pointed to the thick stack of books on the table and asked, "Should we choose one from among them?"
"Ah... yes... yes." Lyla looked at the books in front of her, her blue eyes scanning the spines.
Most of these books were about magic theory. Some were new theories proposed in the last fifty years while she was in her coma, and some were standard Hogwarts textbooks.
But to find a book that could be made into a magical storage vessel... Lyla gently raised her custom ebony wand and pointed.
The books gently floated up, circling slowly around Lyla and Luna.
"This one... should... should be fine..." Lyla spotted a good book among them. It had a sturdy black cover, with only a silver triangular symbol containing a circle and a vertical line embossed on the front.
"What book is this?" Luna looked curiously at the book, which didn't even have a title. "Is it related to what the Aurors do?"
"Or is it related to what Minister Fudge does?"
"Probably... neither..." Lyla had chosen this book not only because of its excellent cover material but also because of her intense personal preference.
She picked up the book, carefully pinched the spine, and cautiously opened its pages.
She hadn't actually read much of the content. Some parts were too profound—rambling about bloodlines, wizards... and Muggles, which she was honestly a bit afraid of. So, even though Madam Vinda had assigned her a report-writing task on it fifty years ago, she hadn't read it carefully.
But then again, she really, really liked the author of this book.
She carefully glanced at the name written on the flyleaf, then nodded to herself.
"Gellert Grindelwald?" The sharp-eyed Luna spotted the author of the book at a glance. She looked at Lyla with a hint of surprise.
'Oh... oh no!'
'Am I about to expose my secret plans to revive his cause?'
Lyla quickly and anxiously blurted out, "This book... the cover is very suitable... it's perfect for making..."
"I know this person." Luna pursed her lips and suddenly lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I've also heard a few of his secrets."
"Ah... is... is that so... Then maybe we should switch to another book... This one by Mr. Lockhart..." Lyla panicked, quickly pulling out another book at random. It was Gilderoy Lockhart's supposedly authoritative work on Magic Array Studies that actually had no relation to Magic Array Studies whatsoever.
"Aren't you curious about those secrets?" Luna asked slowly.
'Should I be curious...' Lyla didn't know how to answer for a moment.
Seeing Lyla's dazed expression, Luna didn't wait for a reply and leaned in. "This is what I heard from my dad."
"He said Grindelwald and Dumbledore were once lovers."
"Ah?" Lyla was stunned for a full second before she instinctively stood up and slapped the table. "This, this, this, this is impossible!"
"Grindelwald... how could he possibly be with Dumbledore..." She was so shocked that her pointed ears stood rigidly high, visibly pushing against the fabric of her hood.
"This should be true." Luna shrugged, not minding Lyla's severe gaffe at all. She nodded seriously. "My dad said so..."
"I..." Lyla desperately wanted to tell Luna that Lord Grindelwald hated Dumbledore the most. She remembered him cursing Dumbledore more than five times every single day. How could he possibly be Dumbledore's lover?
And Dumbledore had defeated Lord Grindelwald and locked him up. What kind of lovers would do that to each other?
But looking at Luna's wide, serious eyes, Lyla ultimately decided not to correct her. After all, she was just an eleven-year-old child; perhaps Luna didn't yet understand what a lover actually was?
'Maybe she misheard 'arch-nemesis', right?' Lyla rationalized to herself. 'And the person who said this was Mr. Lovegood, the one who genuinely believes Crumple-Horned Snorkacks exist. Right? Hahaha.'
"So which one of these two should we use?" Luna didn't seem to be troubled by the question, or rather, she completely trusted her dad's absurd words.
"Then... how about... this one still...?" Lyla said, her voice growing soft and defeated as she slowly sat back down.
Ultimately, she still firmly refused to use Mr. Lockhart's terrible book.