As Lys got off the train, she thought she would have to wait until the crowd dispersed to see her mother.
But once she stepped off, she surprisingly found her mother standing in a less crowded corner, pushing her father in a wheelchair!
Her father looked much healthier, no longer the weak figure who would sweat just from sitting up.
Lys stood there almost bewildered, not knowing what to do for two minutes.
Senna, after casting two ineffective cooling charms on Noah, impatiently glanced around and locked eyes with Lys, finally bringing her back to her senses.
She quickly walked to her mother's side, glanced at her father, who seemed to be in a good mood, and then didn't know what to do.
In previous years, they would avoid attention and hurry away. Why were they appearing so openly in front of the crowd today?
What Lys considered open wasn't an exaggeration. It's rare to see someone in a wheelchair in the wizarding world, and this man was both melancholic and handsome, with an unusual, old-fashioned style.
Despite the hot weather, he wore a black shirt with sleeves rolled up to the forearm, a gray vest, and trousers made of stiff fabric chosen for their drape and dignified appearance. Most notably, there were two magical chains wrapped around him.
Two passersby glanced at him, finding him familiar, but no one recognized Noah.
Lys looked at her smiling father, then at her mother.
"Noah said he wanted to come pick you up and take you home. Now that you're here, we..." Senna hadn't finished speaking when she and Lys almost simultaneously turned to look in one direction.
The sharp gaze carried a hint of doubt and disbelief, making Lys frown, stepping slightly to stand in front of her father's wheelchair, discreetly gripping her wand.
It was that dumb dog's mother, the current matriarch of the Black family—
Walburga Black.
Although she quickly looked away and Disapparated with her two sons, Lys didn't think such a gaze represented friendliness. She could only hope her father no longer harbored wishes of returning to the Black family; their family was a bit complicated.
Seeing his wife protecting him and his daughter standing in front of him, Noah wanted to say something, but seeing Senna's displeased expression, he wisely kept quiet.
Since he agreed to leave the room, his wife Senna had increasingly returned to the willful and capricious manner of their early married years.
"It's rare for us to come out; let's go shopping." Hearing his suggestion, Lys glanced at her mother, but her mother showed no reaction.
With no reaction, what should she do?
If she disagreed, would it upset her father? But if she agreed, was that what her mother wanted?
In those brief five or six seconds, Lys broke into a sweat.
Seeing his wife not responding or objecting, Noah cast a not-so-complete cooling charm around Senna, "Let's go. I haven't seen the outside market for a long time; take me to have a look."
Senna couldn't stand Noah's forlorn tone, so she adjusted her hair and said, "You really shouldn't appear in front of too many people, you know that, but that woman has already seen you, so let's take a good look at the changes outside today."
Lys, full of questions, followed her parents to Diagon Alley. Although Senna's spell was clumsy, her Apparition was indeed excellent.
They went to Gringotts first because Noah needed to enter his personal vault to retrieve something.
The goblins strongly objected to Noah sitting in their cart, claiming they had a duty to ensure the vault's safety, and that magical chain couldn't be taken inside. They seemed to remember who this man in the wheelchair was, and their disdain was almost visible in their eyes.
Senna's face was grim because without Noah going down, the vault door couldn't be opened, yet the goblins insisted it was their problem.
Senna demanded they repeat the vault's terms and caught on the point of "legitimate descendants."
She knew how hard these goblins worked to seize wizards' wealth, but...
She pulled Lys, who was standing aside, "Daughter, she goes."
However, the goblin remained relentless, "According to our regulations, a first-time entrant without legitimate inheritance documents requires you to demonstrate bloodline magic certification on-site!"
This was simply too much. Bloodline magic requires paternal lineage to perform, and if there's no paternal relative available, the child must reverse cast the magic, which drains so much magic that even many adult wizards can't afford it.
This was blatant difficulty! Noah had trouble maintaining a cooling charm; he couldn't possibly sustain bloodline magic!
Moreover, to some extent, their identities needed probing for a while, and confronting Gringotts now was inappropriate...
Noah's expression was also unpleasant, but he still patted Senna's hand to comfort her.
Lys, pulled over then pushed back by Senna, watched her parents' faces, which didn't look good, and didn't know what to think.
At this moment, a voice with a drawling intonation came from outside, and in an instant, a platinum-haired man entered, accompanied by a boy in a black robe.
Lys glanced over; it was the already graduated Malfoy senior and Snape.
"Severus, I hope you can help me identify the target among those Greeks' materials later. They've been substituting inferior goods too severely lately."
The proud platinum-haired aristocrat casually thanked the goblins for their welcome and continued talking with Snape.
Although Lys's eyes were on the newly arrived people, her mind was still recalling bloodline magic. She frowned, realizing she might need to organize a reading note when she got back.
Snape, walking to the middle of the hall, finally saw Lys, and he nodded slightly to the girl who never showed him pity or reproach.
This caught Malfoy's attention; it wasn't easy for someone as awkward as Severus Snape to greet someone proactively.
He followed the line of sight, thought for a moment, but couldn't remember, so he looked at Snape with a questioning glance.
"That's Stalys Black," Malfoy realized, no wonder he didn't recognize her. Her change was indeed significant, but hadn't she been quite famous at school recently? And the appearance of that snake on her shoulder was anything but elegant.
"Stalys Black, my junior. Is there anything I can help with?" Malfoy gave a customary greeting towards Stalys's parents.
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