Newt stood off to the side watching, his gaze intent.
Up front, in the display window, lifelike sculptures of magical creatures filled the decorations— a fire dragon stretching its wings, an owl cocking its head, a hippogriff lifting a claw—
In the end, after Hermione finished looking around with envy, the magizoology master pulled a pouch stuffed full of Galleons out of his case.
And with his shopping spree, Fairy Tale Shop's stock was about to be wiped out.
Professor Quirrell glanced at Sean with some worry, but the shop's owner didn't seem to care in the slightest.
He only thought that, as the supplier of raw materials, Mr. Scamander was simply too rich.
"He bought… all of it…"
Hermione breathed in awe. She'd just been frightened by the biscuits' outrageous prices.
And now someone had essentially booked out the whole shop.
So she and Neville watched with their own eyes as the sculptures that had looked so alive just moments before fell silent, and as Mr. Scamander's cheeks grew noticeably rosier—
Though whether that was from the warm fireplace, no one could say.
Then they moved to the back of the shop, where a small empty table sat between a window and a pretty Christmas tree, close to the hearth. Five minutes later, Professor Quirrell joined them, carrying four large cups of pumpkin juice, topped with pale, milky foam.
They drank, warmth returning to their bodies, and they could clearly hear voices outside the shop.
"How surprising. At this hour, Fairy Tale Shop would usually have gone dark already," said a witch who lived in Diagon Alley.
"That agent manager runs on time like a clock. Other than a certain gentleman, I can't imagine what could make him keep the lights on—" her husband added, brimming with curiosity.
Hearing that—thinking of the shop's sky-high prices and the famous wizards who came and went—Hermione couldn't help feeling that, here, Sean must be treated with special respect.
When she turned back, the ever-smiling Professor Scamander began to speak.
"As for the definition of 'person' versus 'beast'… early attempts to determine which magical beings should be categorized as 'beasts' were extremely blunt, and rather crude."
Mr. Scamander clearly enjoyed sharing bits of magizoological history with young witches and wizards.
So they listened as they sipped pumpkin juice and ate the extra food that had appeared on the table—pumpkin pies, roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops—while Mr. Scamander explained.
Worth noting: Fairy Tale Shop also had two wireless radios. Now the low murmur of broadcasts—Muggle and wizard alike—mingled with Mr. Scamander's magnetic voice.
"Burdock Muldoon, Chief of the Wizard's Council in the fourteenth century, decreed that any member of the magical community who walked on two legs would thereby be granted 'person' status, while all other members would remain classified as 'beasts.'
"With a friendly attitude, he convened a summit and invited all 'persons' to meet with wizards to discuss new magical laws—only to be sorely disappointed when he realized his judgement had been wrong.
"The meeting hall was packed with goblins. They brought every two-legged animal they could find.
"As Bathilda Bagshot tells us in A History of Magic:
"In a din of Diricawls' harsh squawking, augureys' wailing, and the ceaseless shriek-song of the Fwoopers, it was nearly impossible to hear anything. While the witches and wizards tried to read the documents in front of them, all sorts of pixies and fairies circled overhead, cackling and chattering.
"A dozen trolls began swinging their clubs, ready to smash the hall to pieces, and the hags glided about the room looking for children to eat.
"The Chief stood to call the meeting to order—only to slip in a pile of Bundimun droppings, and he fled the hall in a stream of curses."
Neville let out a series of quiet gasps, clearly horrified by the image.
Meanwhile, Sean noted it all down in his magical-creature notebook, his mind running through what he knew of history—and the way goblins had so often fanned the flames in wizarding affairs.
"As we can see," Mr. Scamander continued, "merely having two legs doesn't guarantee that a magical being can—or will—take an interest in matters of wizard government.
"Bitter and resentful, Muldoon abandoned any further attempt to include non-wizard members of the magical community in the Wizard's Council."
"Was that the early spark of conflict between goblins and wizards?" Sean asked thoughtfully. "I recall that three centuries later, goblins stirred up a group of people to riot at the Ministry over dissatisfaction with Quidditch reforms."
"Perhaps. Perhaps not," Professor Scamander said slowly. "The history of magical creatures suggests that wizards were not always the masters of the magical world. There are epics we still know nothing about.
"And whether wizard magic and magical-creature magic were once of the same origin remains an unresolved question in magical history."
Sean sat very still, as if he'd been caught in the vast net of history itself.
"Now let's move the hands of the clock forward," Professor Scamander went on.
"Muldoon's successor, Madam Elfrida Clagg, attempted to redefine 'person,' hoping to build closer ties with other magical beings.
"'Person,' she declared, meant any being capable of speaking human language. And so all beings who could make themselves understood to Council members were invited to the next meeting.
"Yet once again, the problem surfaced. Trolls taught a few simple phrases by goblins turned up as before, ready to smash the hall. Nifflers chased one another in circles around chair legs, and if they could reach an ankle, they'd twist it."
Hermione frowned, visibly trying to think through how such a problem could ever be solved.
"So how do you distinguish people from beasts?" Sean said, a look of dawning understanding in his eyes. "And what made wizards the dominant force in the magical world?
"Maybe it was knowledge and wisdom—how wizards forged a new path in magic. If there's anything that truly sets wizards apart from magical creatures, then perhaps it's the inherited wisdom passed down across generations."
Sean—who had once stood on a giant's shoulders—seemed to grasp something. "Which is why the true wars were between wizards and goblins, not dragons or giants. Because that's a clash of two intelligent peoples—life and death."
His eyes shone.
He suddenly understood: it was wisdom that made wizarding magic so vast—rather than a simple field of study to be observed and catalogued like magizoology.
It reminded him of how science developed—almost perfectly aligned with the way magic advanced through intellect.
At the same time, his thoughts naturally drifted to the way the boundary world split feeling and reason.
"A novel interpretation," Newt murmured after a moment. "And… a reasonable one."
He looked at the young wizard with a mix of realization and unease—then continued.
~~~
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