The Alliance of Fathers' Worries Takes Initial Shape

Edmund, who was maintaining his illusion spell, smiled silently. Now he didn't even need to guess who his fellow traveler was who had chosen the same route and spent the night with him.

"What nonsense are you spouting!" James said angrily in a low voice. "Do you think I'm some Snape who never washes his hair? — Ugh!"

The two of them must have been shoving each other roughly a few times. Edmund couldn't see them, but he could tell what had happened from the sounds of their bodies colliding.

"Hehe." Sirius Black wasn't as pretentious as he was in class. He chuckled softly and joked around with his best friend for a while.

Sigh, I really don't want to ruin this couple's time together.

Edmund hypocritically thought to himself, then made a rough, terrifying sound as he moved closer to the two men:

"Where are my feet...?"

Suddenly, both of them fell silent.

"Where are my feet... my feet... I can't see my feet..."

The Gryffindor duo remained silent, even the rustling of their clothes had ceased. Edmund secretly imagined that the two might have already huddled together, using their seasoned experience to play tricks:

"Give it back...give me your foot..."

Edmund wanted to poke the two in the direction of the two men with his wand, to see if the two silly boys would jump onto the roof beam like rabbits.

"...If we're not even afraid of the Blood Man Barrow, then what ghost is there to fear?"

James said stiffly, as if he raised his hand, because more of his school uniform pants were peeking out from under the Invisibility Cloak—Edmund suspected he had taken out his wand.

Sigh, I was hoping to scare them a little more.

To prevent this guy from making too much of a commotion, Edmund quickly spoke up:

"Hey! James, stop chanting, it's me, one of us."

The two people under the invisibility cloaks fell silent for a moment, then someone suddenly yanked, revealing the angry faces of the two Gryffindors.

"...Edmund Soman!"

Well, that's kind of funny. The way these two looked like wild animals with their fur standing on end was quite amusing; they must have been really scared.

"Don't take it so seriously! Hey bro! If you found out about me, could you resist playing a prank on me?"

Edmund immediately laughed and begged for forgiveness; what he said did make some sense. Given the chance, James would also find it hard to resist playing a prank on him... but that wasn't the point.

"You little rascal! You sneak out at night and then scare us! What if the professors catch you?!"

"You talk like you actually care. When you were teasing Avery, did you two think about what you'd do if you got punished?"

James was taken aback by his retort, and his expression became even more displeased. Edmund was also afraid of provoking him—this kid was too stubborn, and things would get messy if things escalated.

However, this was quite unfortunate. He had almost never interacted with children of this age before, so he didn't know what level of jokes was safe and what level would cause a falling out.

"Alright, alright, actually I just saw the professors walk to the other side... I spotted you two before that. Your invisibility cloaks are too small, they're showing your shoes. I was startled by you two first, so I wanted to scare you a little."

Sirius, standing behind James, frowned as if he wanted to say something, but James beat him to it.

"You're too much of a smooth talker, Edmund! This is Sirius's toy from when he was little; it certainly can't cover the two of us adults now!"

An 11-year-old adult.

Edmund smiled. He guessed James must think he was also wearing an invisibility cloak. This misunderstanding was good; Edmund decided not to break the illusion spell and let the misunderstanding continue.

"If you think I'm all talk, then you guys are just messing around every day. But even messing around requires some capital, and Hogwarts is indeed beautiful at night."

Just as James was about to be fooled, Sirius interrupted:

"What are you planning to do out here in the dark, Soman?"

Edmund scoffed, clearly finding it ridiculous that someone capable of such a thing as going on a night out together would turn around and question him.

"There's something I'd like to ask our dean that I don't want outsiders to know." Even though no one could see him, Edmund still managed a polite, fake smile.

"I suppose you know that Professor Slughorn has never been one to be rigid. If he were patrolling alone tonight, I should have caught up with him by now."

This is almost certainly the truth. If someone heard him say something like this, they would never have the nerve to ask, "What is it that you're saying is something that's inconvenient for outsiders to know?"

Demme, clearly lacking confidence in James's emotional intelligence, quickly added:

"And you two, Blake? What are you two up to this time?"

Uh.

The Gryffindor duo exchanged an awkward glance.

Night tours...where do night tours need a reason?

Sirius asked this question because he still harbored prejudice against Slytherin and had gained some understanding of Edmund Sohman's character.

To put it simply, Sirius doesn't think Edmund is a good person.

Ironically, he was right.

Unfortunately, Sirius is still a bit green and finds it hard to say directly: You are you and we are us. My night out with James has no reason. We just felt bored in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep. We were just idling around anyway, so we might as well go out for a walk.

Seeing his vacant stare, James knew he couldn't count on him. The kid racked his brains and actually managed to come up with a way to change the subject.

"Uh, no."

"Wait a minute, why are you two still addressing each other by your last names? It's kind of disgusting to pretend you don't know each other like that."

This time, Edmund and Sirius looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Is there any possibility?" Edmund smiled.

Sirius smiled and replied, "We're not really that close, James."

James glanced at them sideways, completely unmoved.

"Come on, this is hilarious. I bet you two are the two people in the whole school who hate being called by their last name the most, yet you insist on not calling each other by their first names even though you don't dislike each other—you're not little girls, what's with all the fuss!"

……

Edmund tried to calm himself, but the corners of his mouth continued to twitch uncontrollably.

Is James simply perceptive, or does he have negative emotional intelligence?

But what was even more terrifying was yet to come. Edmund had intended to drag Sirius Black, with whom he didn't get along, into making fun of Jaime, but to his surprise, Black seemed somewhat moved.

Edmund quickly realized that the kid must be trying to move his friend by taking the things he disliked to heart.

...Please spare me!

"Uh, uh..." Adorable Damon realized that continuing to dwell on this would also be disastrous. "Then... Sirius? From now on, I'll call you Sirius?"

Sirius raised the corners of his mouth and nodded. Judging from his expression, he did seem less wary of him than before.

Edmund was almost confused, wondering what had triggered their closeness. However, dwelling on the topic was indeed incredibly cheesy, giving him goosebumps.

Edmund cut the subject short, saying it was getting late and they should head back to the common room. The Gryffindor duo had no objections and donned their invisibility cloaks again.

This corridor is very close to the Potions classroom, which in turn is very close to the Slytherin common room.

Before saying goodbye, Edmund vaguely heard the two people behind him talking in hushed tones about Squirts. Sure enough, they also heard the two deans' discussion.

"I never imagined they lived such a hard life," James said softly.

"I don't know, but it's not surprising," Sirius replied calmly. "...But it's also terrifying...I don't believe my family has never had a Squib. Where did they all go?"

Edmund couldn't resist and, mimicking their manner, struck up a conversation in a detached tone:

"Isn't it quite shocking? It turns out there are so many people in this world living such unhappy lives in corners we can't see."

"With so many demands going unmet, it seems the social problems within the wizarding world are far more acute than people realize."

After Edmund finished speaking, he said goodnight to the two boys. He didn't expect the two 11-year-olds to have any profound insights into the matter.

To be honest, Edmund himself—or rather, the genie—almost welcomed these social contradictions.

Oppression is everywhere, and countless people are suffering.

That's why the genie's three wishes, which require selling one's soul to be granted, have remained popular for thousands of years.

Not to mention the wizarding world, just within Hogwarts and Slytherin... Edmund has already discovered three promising talents who would give up everything and sell their souls to achieve something.

So here's the question: Who will be the first to become his fan?