That mimic was a strange creature that Isabelle captured and put up for sale in the bazaar a day ago. Like all fantasy tropes of the creature this one took the form of what at passing examination was a normal wooden chest with iron banding. Upon closer inspection however you would notice several signs of something being terribly wrong. The first was the several narrow slits in the lid of the "chest" that were in fact the eyes of it closed until something woke the beast.-
The second was that the "iron handles" at the side of the chest were fused into the "wood" rather than attached via rivets or nails. The third thing you'd notice was the thin layer of moisture that sat at the edge of the mouth of the chest. The final was that the sides of the "chest" bulged outward slightly before depressing as the creature breathed. Salem had spotted the little monster in a cage during one of the breaks in our lessons that we spent browsing the bazaar since she was curious about other worlds. Naturally she bargained for it from the girl Isabelle had put in charge of handling it while she focused on grinding levels and loot.-
Honestly Salem had to burn through a good half of the funds I had given her to set up in my world to purchase it. But the woman was highly satisfied with the creature and SOMEHOW tamed it like it was a misunderstood dog and not a man eating monster. Normally it sat dormant in her room at the foot of her bed waiting to be fed like the already spoiled thing it was. I'm not joking Salem had been feeding the thing whole chickens that she bought from various people who decided they didn't want to know why she wanted them and took her money.-
The thing seemed perfectly content to just sit patiently until it's new owner brought it food. Despite it's tamed status however the fact remained that it was still a man eater and as such had no problem at all greedily devouring all five corpses and bulging obscenely from overeating. Salem even stripped them first so it didn't have to try digesting cloth and other materials. I meanwhile worked to clean up the mess she had made during the fight and disposing of everything we couldn't use via selling it to the system.-
"Cuthbert is very satisfied with his meal." Salem said clearly pleased.
"The fact you gave it a name like that disturbs me. I could accept something like Chomp or Rusty, but why in Merlin's beard did you choose Cuthbert of all things?" I asked with a headache.
"I thought it fit. It's not like this is the first time someone gave a pet a human names." she said casually.
"Fine fine, whatever. Just keep an eye on the thing. In most worlds I know of that have creatures like that they spawn new ones when well fed. If a bunch of items neither of us bought start showing up you have to deal with that mess." I said shaking my head.
"There might be more?" she asked eagerly.
"Why couldn't it be something cute and cuddly like cats? Why did you have to be a mimic person?" I asked no one in particular with a groan.
I considered going to pay Malfoy a visit as I chose to ignore the mimic for my own sanity but decided against it. I was smart enough to understand the subtext behind this incident from the memories I went through. Lucius was wary of me, didn't know if I was prey or predator and so naturally goaded some of his dumber compatriot's into testing me.-
I could of course confront him about it but he'd definitely deny it and after he hears nothing back from these five he'll put up a wall of protection. Something no doubt incriminating for if I chose to come after him. Rather than deal with that I decided to let him think he got away scot free for now. No reason why I couldn't cash in this debt at a later point right?-
So while Lucius was no doubt pacing as he waited for any word from these currently digesting fellows I was moving on with my business. Specifically cleaning up the failed Wiggenweld potion and prepping the cauldron for another attempt since all in total this little distraction only cost us about ten minutes. Over the next few days I taught Salem in my realm that she was rather jealous of. I had to train her there because it was the only place she could practice most spells without destroying the house. Anything she broke in my realm I could fix with only a single thought. -
She thankfully picked up magic modulation fairly easily and stopped supercharging her spells unintentionally over this time and I received an owl with my school list enclosed finally. In truth I received both the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons school list for the second year. I assumed this was so I could keep up with the Hogwarts side of things while learning overseas at our french cousin school but I frankly didn't need to worry about that anyways. The moment I saw the full collection of Lockhart's works I knew I already had basically everything else covered. At most I'd miss out on the practical experience from Herbology but that was it.