Hogwarts: Bloodline Legend-Chapter 552 - 160: Daily Life and Compensation_4

"Of course, I’m making a groundbreaking, era-defining masterpiece." Ian held up the device he’d basically finished assembling and pointed it at Lupin, pressing the shutter without warning.

The sudden flash startled Lupin so much he nearly jumped out of his skin. Once he gathered his wits, he immediately patted himself down from head to toe, only relaxing when he was sure he hadn’t lost an arm or a leg and hadn’t suffered a soul attack or anything.

This guy is definitely getting more and more suspicious of Ian.

"A camera?"

He eyed the box in Ian’s hand. Honestly, if he hadn’t seen it spit out a photo just now, he’d have sworn it was an urn or something.

"Yep, though it’s just a prototype. I haven’t settled on the look yet." Ian defended his questionable artistic taste, flipping the freshly printed photo in his hand.

"Magic Polaroid—just load up my special Magic Potion and you’ll get moving photos with every shot! No need to mess around with old-school film development ever again." Ian launched into a dramatic sales pitch, then looked hopefully at Lupin.

"A camera like this is bound to be a hit, right? So, if it were you, how much would you be willing to pay for it?" Ian’s plan here was to run a little market research.

However—

He’d just finished the question.

And immediately realized he’d asked the wrong person.

"I’d rather save my money than blow it on some flashy gadget like that." Lupin really tried to think about it, then gave an utterly sincere answer straight from the heart.

"Not useful? Flashy? Pfft! Do you even know how advanced and ahead of the times this camera is?" Ian waved the photo he’d just snapped right under Lupin’s nose.

"And I even put a beauty filter in there! Look at how brooding and handsome you look—your vibes are off the charts! Every witch will lose their mind over this genius idea of mine!"

Ian sounded utterly convinced.

Wizards are people too.

Who doesn’t wanna see a better-looking version of themselves, right?

"Beauty filter?" Lupin stared at the photo Ian handed over. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, there’s no way he’d believe the guy in the picture was actually him.

At that moment, it was like he’d just learned a whole new term.

"See how awesome this is now?"

Ian grinned and snatched the photo back from Lupin.

"Wasn’t that a gift for me?"

Lupin looked a bit bummed as Ian stuffed the photo away in his pocket.

"A single photo costs one Silver Sickle." Ian couldn’t even be bothered to shrug; he knew he wasn’t gonna squeeze a Knut out of grown-ass Lupin.

"It’s just a sheet of paper! Even with your Magic Potion, it shouldn’t be that expensive." Lupin clicked his tongue, thinking a Silver Sickle was basically a fortune at this point.

"The exact costs are a trade secret. But hey, if you think it’s overpriced, that’s not on me. The stuff I put in here costs way more than any eyebrow pencil or whatever."

Ian gave his answer with an impressively straight face.

Lupin honestly couldn’t follow the little wizard’s gibberish by this point.

But—

After a few moments’ silence, he spoke up again.

"Why are you so obsessed with making money, anyway?"

Lupin had always been puzzled by this. From what he could see, the little wizard was already loaded, and there’s not much a Hogwarts student even needs to spend money on.

"Guess."

Ian didn’t answer directly.

"I’m guessing you want to be strung up on a cross by an angry mob." Lupin delivered his comeback dead-serious; after years of wandering, he knew all too well how Muggles like to deal with rich folk.

"..."

Ian hadn’t expected Lupin to be this sharp with the sarcasm.

"Your Wolf Poison Potion is totally from Knockturn Alley. I can smell the ocean through your shirt and the bottle cap." Ian shot right back, refusing to lose ground. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He went for the jugular with some hard-hitting truth.

"?????"

Lupin froze, then suddenly seemed to realize something, quickly fumbling for his Wolf Poison Potion. He unscrewed the cap and checked the contents with a look of utter panic.

"You mean someone watered down my potion?"

He voiced the thought that had just struck him, clearly freaked out. Lupin’s Magic Potion skills were decent—by his standards, he hadn’t noticed anything off.

"Of course not."

Ian replied.

Just as Lupin was about to breathe a sigh of relief—

"What they did was dump a little of the Potion into a whole bottle of water."

The little wizard corrected Lupin’s phrasing with deadly accuracy.

"..."

Lupin looked like he’d been struck by lightning, total heartbroken mode activated.

"Guess I’m still too green—don’t have the guts those scammer shopkeepers have." Ian lamented dramatically, taking the bottle of dyed ’potion’ water from Lupin’s frozen hand.

"I’ve gotta go back and find them!"

Finally snapping out of it, Lupin looked utterly furious. He snatched back his Wolf Poison Potion, gritted his teeth, and was about to storm off—obviously wanting to confront whoever sold him the bogus stuff.

"If I were them, I’d be long gone by now."

Ian’s words sent Lupin right back into the depths of despair.

"Oh, by the way, you came to see me because you wanted me to check your Wolf Poison Potion?" Ian was still curious why Lupin had looked for him.

"Of course not."

Lupin exhaled shakily, still unsettled.

"There’s a letter for you, delivered by owl..." As he spoke, he pulled out a very fancy looking envelope, even decorated with gold trim.

Honestly—

It looked like Lupin had even tried to pry those gold bits off at some point, but couldn’t manage it.

Noticing Ian’s weird stare, the slightly embarrassed, down-and-out Werewolf quickly changed the subject. "You good with the Pure-blood Clan or something?"

That caught Ian off-guard for a sec.

Then—

Like he’d just remembered something, Ian grabbed the envelope from Lupin on the spot.

"Hahahaha! Nah, you can’t even imagine my mood right now—it’s peak ’Sis! Sis! Sis!’ excitement!"

When Ian saw the sender and the words on the envelope, he actually threw aside his half-finished Magic Camera and started cackling weirdly, making Lupin extra confused. To really set the mood, Ian whistled for his Black Phoenix, grabbed the bird by the neck, and made it cackle along with him.

"Hehehehehe~"

That’s more like it.

A perfect soundtrack for Ian’s current state of mind.

"What’s up with you?"

Lupin had no clue why the little wizard was literally grinning ear-to-ear.

"I just leveled up, that’s what!"

Ian knew.

His compensation had arrived. He tore open the envelope, ignored the pages-long letter inside, and shook the envelope hard over his desk.

"Clatter, clatter, clatter~"

Gotta admit—

Even with his hopes up, Ian was still shocked by the heap of keys that fell out—dozens of them, each stamped with an address.

"Are those Gringotts vault keys?"

Lupin crowded closer, clearly stunned.

"Nope!"

Ian reached back into the envelope and fished out a thick stack of deeds, just slapped them right down in front of Lupin like a show-off who just struck it rich.

"These are the keys to Diagon Alley."

You got it.

Ian had just been compensated with an entire street in Diagon Alley.

Or, you know... it was a Peace Offering.

[ps: Make-up Chapter, 20,000 words, will be delivered tomorrow, all-nighter tonight!]