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Naruto : Chimera Ninja!
"That's good."
Professor Quirrell smiled. He carefully cradled the little Bowtruckle, bowed respectfully, and vanished into the crowd.
After the professor left, Sean remained standing exactly where he was.
He had asked Quirrell to search the forests of Albania for any trace of Voldemort.
After the failure to steal the Philosopher's Stone while possessing Quirrell, Voldemort should still be drifting somewhere in those woods.
But finding him would clearly be difficult. More importantly, even if they did find him, how could Sean destroy something that no longer had a body?
Voldemort existed now only as a wandering soul. When he fled Quirrell's body, even Dumbledore had been unable to stop him. When he entered Harry's body, even Dumbledore had been powerless.
Still, Sean needed to track him. Not only because soul-based Horcruxes could have special effects on the soul itself, but also to understand exactly what state Voldemort was currently in.
Now the professor had confirmed it: even if they destroyed every Horcrux, Voldemort would not simply die.
He would merely become killable.
Only after they inflicted real damage on that main fragment of his soul could they truly destroy him.
There was no other way.
And that main soul fragment was hiding somewhere in the forests of Albania.
He might be possessing rats, snakes, lizards… or whispering into the ear of any wizard he thought he could use…
Unless…
Sean stepped into Flourish and Blotts. He knew there was one wizard who could locate Voldemort with certainty.
But locating him was useless.
Sean had to destroy him.
He could only hope he still had enough time…
The bookshop was noisy. Sean looked up and was slightly surprised.
Normally the windows displayed enormous gold-embossed books thick as paving stones, but now a large iron cage stood behind the glass, containing about a hundred copies of The Monster Book of Monsters.
The books were all tangled together, furiously wrestling like they were in a violent wrestling match. Torn pages flew everywhere.
Sean pulled out his book list and checked it carefully.
The Monster Book of Monsters was listed as the textbook for Care of Magical Creatures. This must be what Hagrid had meant when he said it would come in handy.
The manager hurried over.
"Hogwarts?" he asked bluntly. "Here for the new books?"
"Yes," Sean said.
"Then… Mr Green?!"
The manager stared at him, then gasped. "You're here too? Oh, of course—you haven't graduated yet!"
It seemed the manager recognised him.
That wasn't common.
Only the very first editions of Green's Notes carried Sean's photograph, and that had been forced in by the owner of Flourish and Blotts himself.
In all the newspapers since, only his back had ever appeared.
"It's such an honour to meet you!"
The manager pulled out a copy of Green's Notes and a quill. As Sean expected, it was one of the earliest editions—the version sold through Flourish and Blotts before Green's Bookshop had even opened.
"Mr Green, please, a signature?"
The manager looked a little embarrassed.
Sean's quill floated up and wrote Sean Green in elegant strokes.
"Oh, wonderful, wonderful—"
The manager beamed.
A personal signature from Mr Green could fetch over a dozen Galleons in the hands of certain witches from magical families!
"You know, Hogwarts students get a sixty percent discount. And if you'd be willing to open more sales channels for us, Flourish and Blotts would be delighted to work with you.
I'll get your books right away."
The manager trotted off happily.
Sean watched him pull on thick gloves, grab a knobbly walking stick, and head toward the cage of Monster Books.
"Sir, wait—I already have that one," Sean said.
"You do?"
The manager looked visibly relieved. "Thank Merlin. I've already been bitten five times this morning—"
A loud ripping sound split the air as two Monster Books grabbed a third and tore it in half.
"Stop that! Stop it at once!"
The manager shouted, poking his stick into the cage and whacking the books to separate them. "I'm never ordering these again, never! What a disaster!
The last time we bought two hundred copies of The Invisible Book of Invisibility—cost a fortune, and we never found a single one…
I thought nothing could be worse… So, what else do you need?"
"Yes," Sean said, looking at his list. "I need Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky."
"Ah, starting Divination, are you?"
The manager pulled off his gloves and led Sean to the back corner where the Divination books were kept.
A small table was piled high with thick volumes like The Unpredictable: What to Do When Fortune Turns Foul and Broken Balls: When Good Luck Turns Bad.
"Here you are."
The manager climbed a ladder and pulled down a large black book.
Unfogging the Future.
"Excellent guide—teaches you all the basic methods of divination: palmistry, crystal balls, bird entrails…"
He trailed off.
Both he and Sean were now staring at a boy squatting on the floor.
Sean recognised Harry. He was holding a book that had fallen open right in front of him, staring at it blankly.
The shop was crowded, yet Harry remained crouched there, lost in thought.
Sean's sharp eyes caught the title: Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming.
"Oh, I wouldn't read that if I were you," the manager said lightly, noticing what Harry was staring at. "You'll start seeing death omens everywhere. Enough to scare anyone to death."
His voice was loud, but Harry didn't seem to hear. He kept staring at the cover, which showed a huge black dog the size of a bear, its eyes glowing.
It looked strangely familiar…
The manager pushed Unfogging the Future into Sean's hands.
"Anything else?"
"Yes. Intermediate Transfiguration and The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3…"
Sean recited the rest of the list from memory.
Then he quietly stepped in front of Harry, shielding the dazed boy from the passing crowd.
While the manager fetched the books, Sean spotted the others scattered around the shop collecting their own. Finally, his gaze settled on a small "goblin" leading a large black dog on a leash.