"How much longer do we have to stay here?"
In a somewhat dim small room, a man with a sharp monkey-like face leaned against the wall nearby, his wand tucked at his waist, playing with a patterned dagger in his hands.
The fat man sitting by the window shook his head. "Don't know. According to the boss, we probably have to wait until that... what's-it-called Cat..."
"Hey!"
The fat man was only halfway through his sentence when he was interrupted by a serious-looking middle-aged man on the other side.
Seeming to realize he had said something wrong, the fat man quickly corrected himself.
"Wait until the research on that cat's magic is finished before we can leave."
After he finished speaking, the room fell into brief silence. After a while, the fat man hesitated, planning to say something to ease the atmosphere.
But just then, his ears suddenly caught some sound.
"You... this..."
Sharply turning his head toward where the sound came from, the fat man drew his wand and slowly stood up, coming to the window.
After pausing for two seconds, he instantly pushed open the window and climbed out, warily looking around, but saw no one.
After looking for a few seconds, the fat man climbed back through the window in confusion.
"What's wrong?"
"I thought I heard some sound outside just now. Maybe I was hearing things."
"Tch, making a big fuss over nothing. I thought we were going to fight!"
"Ridiculous. With so many of us scattered around this remote, broken town, even if a squad of Aurors came, they'd die at our hands!"
"Besides, the boss's strength is no joke!"
"That's true!"
Laughter erupted from the room, the window was closed again, leaving only an empty alley.
A few seconds later, the air at the end of the alley twisted, and a black cat appeared out of nowhere. Seeing the window close again, it breathed a sigh of relief, then crossed its arms and looked disdainfully at the nearby bushes.
The bushes rustled, and before long, a bespectacled boy with a lightning scar on his head crawled out, covering the back of his head and hissing in pain.
"Hiss, you..."
Just as Harry was about to complain about the black cat throwing him into the bushes, the black cat jumped up and covered his mouth, speaking softly in a cute little girl's voice. "Don't talk, meow!"
Then it grabbed Harry and ran toward a distant alley.
Only after completely leaving that row of houses and confirming no one was around did the little black cat release Harry's hand and look at him, very dissatisfied.
"Do you know you almost got us both killed, meow?"
Its voice was like a cute little girl's, but its expression wasn't cute at all.
"That house and several houses nearby are all full of dark wizards. If I hadn't reacted quickly just now, you would have already been captured by them to use as potion ingredients!"
Saying this, the little black cat made a throat-slitting gesture, its expression terrifyingly sinister.
"Dark wizards?"
Hearing this term, Harry, who had been about to complain, immediately perked up and asked curiously.
"Then why were you there?"
Hearing this question, the little black cat's expression became somewhat dejected.
"Because all my subjects are in the hands of those dark wizards. I can't just run away by myself, meow."
"But I have no way to rescue them. I'm too weak and have no combat ability, meow."
"No combat ability?" Harry's expression became somewhat strange. "You just threw me into the bushes. Wasn't that quite strong?"
Just moments ago, he hadn't even reacted to what was happening before being thrown into those bushes by this seemingly unremarkable little black cat. That strength was no less than an ordinary adult Muggle's.
"I can only bully wizard cubs like you, meow..."
Somewhat deflated by the black cat's words, Harry was silent for a while before continuing to offer suggestions.
"Can't you turn invisible? Can't you sneak in invisibly to rescue those cats?"
"It won't work, meow." The little black cat shook its head.
"There are warning magical arrays near the cages. They'll trigger as soon as you approach, and then even I won't be able to escape, meow."
Saying this, the little black cat crouched down, hugged itself with both paws, and two crystal tears slid from its emerald eyes.
"I'm still too weak, meow. I can't even protect my own subjects."
Seeing the little black cat's dejected appearance, Harry knelt on one knee and patted its head.
"Don't be too discouraged. Maybe there's still some hope!"
"Besides, you have me! I can help you!" Harry patted his chest.
"Just some dark wizards. I'm the person who stopped Voldemort's conspiracy!"
"Who's Voldemort, meow?" The little black cat's eyes showed clear confusion.
"...He's a very strong dark wizard, the most powerful dark wizard in this world!"
Looking at Harry suspiciously, the black cat disdainfully shook its head.
"Forget it, meow. You're too weak. You'd have no ability to resist in those people's hands."
"If you really want to help me, you'd be better off helping me find more helpers, meow."
Harry, whose good intentions were looked down upon by a cat, seemed very unconvinced. His face flushed red, but he had no words to refute her. If that house really was full of dark wizards as this little black cat said, then he indeed couldn't be of much help.
After all, he couldn't use his wand, hadn't brought his Invisibility Cloak, and Hedwig wasn't with him either, so he had no way to contact others for help...
Wait?
He didn't seem to be completely unable to contact others for help?
A flash of inspiration crossed his eyes as Harry focused on the back of his hand.
A few seconds later, a silver-white mark slowly lit up.
"I think it would be best to separate magical creatures' abilities and taming difficulty into two different classifications, calculated separately. Combining them together like now is too easily confusing."
In a tent that looked ordinary from the outside but was very spacious inside, Evans and Newt sat facing each other, each with paper and pen in front of them.
Not far away, Sothea was holding a bag of beef jerky, listening to their discussion with great interest.
"But if we classify them separately, it might very well increase the learning difficulty of the new classification system, which wouldn't be conducive to promotion." Newt frowned, pointing out the problem with Evans's suggestion.
"Indeed, if the new classification can't be accepted by the general public, it would be meaningless."
Rubbing his chin, Evans pondered for a moment before speaking again.
"What if we purely combine magical creatures' overall combat power and danger level into one classification, then expand the previous five-class system to seven levels? Would that be better?"
"After all, taming difficulty is useless for ordinary wizards. Pure danger level and overall combat power would let them have a basic understanding of the magical creatures they're about to face."
"Moreover, the combat power gap between creatures like dragons and Acromantulas is too large. They shouldn't be in the same classification."
"That's a good approach!" Newt's eyes lit up as he noted this idea on the parchment in front of him.
Following this line of thought, Evans continued. "Then we can choose a common magical creature with relatively average strength as a reference..."
Halfway through his sentence, Evans's expression suddenly focused. He looked at the back of his hand, carefully sensing for two seconds, his eyes showing some surprise.
Harry's mark? How did this kid end up in France?