Under the guidance of the house-elf Kallata, Lilian left the study and went to the temporary accommodation prepared for her.
Only Sagres remained in the room, the firelight from the fireplace casting flickering shadows across his calm face.
He walked over to the desk and pulled open one of the drawers.
Inside, a makeshift nest had been crudely lined with soft velvet, and Professor Elit Samdron, reduced to the size of a palm by Sagres' Charm, was struggling to sit up.
He seemed to have only just awakened. His dishevelled hair bristled with anger, and although his eyes were still somewhat dazed, they were filled even more with terror and fury.
Sagres barely looked at him. He casually pinched a few owl treats from a jar on the desk and tossed them into the drawer like pebbles, where they landed at Samdron's feet.
"Eat something."
Sagres's tone was flat, as though he were feeding a pet.
"Once you've eaten, you'll need to sleep a little longer."
Samdron stared at the dry, shrivelled owl treats at his feet, then looked up at the wizard wearing his face yet possessing an entirely different, cold demeanour.
The grievances and confusion that had accumulated over the past few days finally erupted.
"What... what exactly do you want?!" he shouted in a thin, tearful voice. "Who are you?! Why are you doing this to me?!"
Sagres lowered his gaze towards him, his tone remaining even.
"I'm helping you, and I'm helping Hogwarts. Besides, I'll be leaving soon."
"Helping me? Helping Hogwarts?"
Professor Samdron could hardly believe his ears.
He had been locked inside a drawer and fed owl treats. What kind of help was that?
"You lock me up and use my identity, and you call that saving Hogwarts?"
"Yes," Sagres replied as though it were obvious. "I eliminated dozens of giants that threatened the castle, drove away a group of ill-intentioned goblins entrenched in the Forbidden Forest, and incidentally..."
He paused.
"...dealt with a Church Witch Hunting Squad led by a Chief Priest that was heading towards the castle. Wouldn't removing those threats count as eliminating hidden dangers for Hogwarts?"
Professor Samdron's mouth fell open.
For a moment, he could not say another word.
Giants, goblins, a Witch Hunting Squad...
Any one of those threats would have been enough to put Hogwarts on high alert, yet this person spoke of having "dealt with" them as casually as though he had merely tidied up a room.
He stared at Sagres in stunned disbelief, inwardly shaken.
Sagres ignored his shock and pointed his wand towards the owl treats in the drawer.
"Engorgio."
The owl treats immediately swelled until they were nearly as tall as the shrunken Samdron, now resembling a pile of bizarre oversized grain sculptures.
"Eat quickly."
Samdron looked at the enormous "food" before him, then back at the indifferent Sagres, his emotions complicated.
After several days of observation, though most of that time had been spent unconscious under Stupefy, and after their brief conversation just now, he had begun to sense that although this mysterious wizard's methods were strange and overwhelmingly powerful, he did not seem to harbour any ill intentions towards Hogwarts.
With the other man's strength, there was no need to deceive or reassure someone who was effectively his prisoner.
A ridiculous thought suddenly occurred to Samdron.
He steadied himself and tried to make his voice tremble less, though there was still a trace of uncertain grievance in it.
"Even... even if you really did all that... you still used my face! You locked me in a drawer! And... and you've been feeding me expired owl treats! Shouldn't I receive some compensation for that?!"
He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth, afraid that he had angered Sagres.
Unexpectedly, Sagres was momentarily taken aback.
Then an expression appeared on his face as though he had been so amused that he almost wanted to laugh in frustration.
He studied the miniature professor in the drawer, who had finally worked up the courage to "demand compensation", and an unreadable look flashed through his eyes.
After several seconds of silence, Sagres seemed to make a decision.
He stopped urging Samdron to eat and casually picked up a stack of parchment covered in discarded calculations from the desk.
His long fingers lightly brushed over the parchment, and the stack of discarded papers rapidly transformed, becoming a thick, ancient-looking hardcover book in an instant.
Across the cover, the words Standard Book of Spells appeared, formed from countless intricate magical runes that seemed to flow and shift on their own.
Even more astonishingly, the pages began turning by themselves despite the absence of any wind. Dense lines of text and detailed diagrams rapidly appeared across them in clear, elegant handwriting, as though an invisible scholar were writing at incredible speed.
Within moments, the entire book had been "written".
"Your compensation."
Sagres placed the book beside the drawer where Samdron could see it.
"This Standard Book of Spells... along with some personal notes I've included, may be useful for your future teaching. At the very least, it's somewhat more advanced than what you're currently teaching."
He made no attempt to boast, but the confidence in his flat tone made Samdron's heart skip a beat.
Samdron had never heard of a book called Standard Book of Spells, but he understood what a book of magical knowledge written by such a powerful wizard could mean.
His gaze was immediately drawn to the book, and he even forgot about his complaints regarding the owl treats.
He suddenly realised that this might be the greatest, and perhaps the only, benefit he had gained from being imprisoned.
Sagres watched his reaction without saying anything more.
He simply raised his wand again and pointed it towards the drawer.
"Digest it properly, both the food and the knowledge. You'll need to sleep a little longer after that."
Samdron jolted and hurriedly shouted, "Wait! Wait, sir! Could... could you please stop using Stupefy on me? Just leave me inside the drawer. I promise I won't make any noise!"
Being unconscious all day was an awful experience, and more importantly, he desperately wanted to read that book.
Sagres paused.
He looked at Samdron's eager expression and considered the request for a moment.
He would be leaving soon anyway, and a conscious but miniature prisoner posed no real threat. At his current size, Samdron would struggle even to climb out of the drawer.
"All right," Sagres agreed.
"And... and one more thing!"
Seeing an opportunity, Samdron hurriedly pointed towards the Standard Book of Spells.
"Could you shrink that too and put it inside the drawer? I... I want to read it."
His voice was filled with barely concealed anticipation.
Sagres apparently found the request harmless.
He lightly tapped the thick book with his wand, and it rapidly shrank until it was a suitable size for the miniature professor to read.
Then, with another flick of his wand, he sent it into the drawer, where it landed beside the enormous owl treats.
"Remember your promise."
With that, Sagres closed the drawer and placed a Locking Charm on it.
Darkness descended inside, with only a few faint rays of light filtering through the ventilation holes Sagres had made.
Samdron did not care in the slightest.
He practically stumbled and scrambled towards the miniature Standard Book of Spells and impatiently flipped open the first page.
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