Knockturn Alley.
The filthiest corner of London, where the air reeked of sulfur, rotting cabbage, and despair.
Ivan Potter, wearing ill-fitting black robes with the hood up, stood before the ruins of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, holding a lollipop he'd just "casually" swiped from a street stall.
This shop, due to "poor management" (Ivan blew it up last month), had now become a black market for dark wizards to trade contraband.
"Hear that? The 'Monster of the Potter Family' is coming to Knockturn Alley."
"What's there to fear? This is our turf! Even Aurors don't dare come in!"
"Exactly. Even if it is Ivan Potter, if he dares show up, I'll skin him alive and make him into a rug!"
Several thug-faced dark wizards were huddled together, boasting loudly.
Suddenly, a black shadow flashed.
Smack!
The dark wizard who had been speaking the loudest spun in place like a top three times before face-planting into the gutter.
A live, croaking frog had been stuffed into his mouth.
Ivan stood in the wizard's original spot, still holding the half-eaten lollipop.
"Too noisy," Ivan said flatly. "Also, this frog is a protected species. Didn't you know?"
Dead silence.
The remaining dark wizards backed away in horror. Before they could even raise their wands, a terrifying gravity crushed down on their shoulders.
"Gravity Field · Times Three."
Thud! Thud!
The group dropped to their knees like dumplings hitting a pot, the crisp sound of cracking kneecaps echoing in the alley.
"I'm here to buy ingredients, not to kill people." Ivan stepped on a dark wizard's back as he walked past. "Who's the boss here? Come out and serve the customer."
Just then, the door to the second-floor balcony was kicked open.
A tall, gaunt witch with heavy eyelids and sinister eyes emerged.
She held a walnut wand, the tip still dripping blood—clearly, she had just dealt with some blind traitor.
Narcissa Black? No, crazier than her.
It was Bellatrix Black (not yet married into the Lestrange family, but already Voldemort's most fanatical follower).
"The Potter brat..."
Bellatrix was about to let out her signature maniacal laugh and cast the Cruciatus Curse.
"Word Soul · Shut Up."
Ivan didn't even lift his eyelids.
Bellatrix opened her mouth wide, but found she couldn't make a sound. Her throat felt sealed with cement, only emitting wheezing gasps.
Her eyes widened in terror as she tried to wave her wand.
But Ivan vanished instantly.
In the next second, he appeared right in front of her, their noses almost touching.
"Crucio?" Ivan tilted his head, gently pushing Bellatrix's wand aside. "Too primitive. Stimulating nerve endings to create pain is inefficient, and it breaks people too easily."
Two Death Eater minions behind Bellatrix tried to rush forward.
Ivan snapped his fingers.
"Alchemy · Molecular Recombination · Statuesque Edition."
The two minions instantly turned into lifelike bronze statues, frozen in their charging pose, even the ferocious expressions on their faces solidified. Ivan casually moved them to stand guard by the door.
"Now, we can talk business properly."
Ivan pulled over a mostly-intact chair, sat on it backward, and looked at the dazed (and mute) Bellatrix.
"I want a batch of Dragon Blood, Unicorn Hair, and... that 'Dark Magic Action Figure' you grabbed from Borgin and Burkes."
Ivan pointed to a box Bellatrix was clutching tightly.
Bellatrix hugged the box deathly tight, her eyes screaming frantically: Over my dead body!
"Not giving it?"
Ivan sighed, stood up, and dusted off his hands.
"I wanted to buy it with Galleons. Since you refuse, I'll have to use 'Physical Persuasion'."
He reached out and clawed the air.
The box in Bellatrix's arms flew to Ivan's hand as if it had wings.
Ivan opened it, checked the contents, and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad, a flawed Horcrux embryo. Crude workmanship, but usable."
Then, he looked at Bellatrix.
"As punishment for forcing a sale... I think your wand needs an upgrade."
Bellatrix: ???
Ivan snatched her prized walnut wand.
"Walnut, Dragon Heartstring. Decent materials. But the core is too stiff, lacks flexibility."
Ivan rubbed his fingers together, and the wand instantly melted into a blob of red liquid.
He pulled a chopstick he'd snapped from the street stall out of his pocket and threw it into the liquid.
"Alchemy · Fusion · Enchantment."
The liquid solidified instantly.
A brand-new wand appeared in Ivan's hand.
The shaft had a pitch-black metallic texture, and the tip was no longer wood, but a slowly rotating, miniature "Dragon Eyeball."
Ivan shoved the wand back into the terrified Bellatrix's hand.
"Try it. Point it at that bronze statue and say 'Scourgify'."
Bellatrix instinctively wanted to resist, but her body uncontrollably raised the wand.
"Scourgify!"
BOOM!
It wasn't a cleaning charm.
A jet of black flame erupted, instantly incinerating the bronze statue into ash, and even burning a bottomless hole through the stone floor.
Ivan clapped his hands. "See? I compressed the algorithm for 'Fiendfyre' into a Cleaning Charm. In the future, no need for Crucio. Just use this to heat bathwater for your master... oh no, your Dark Lord. Efficiency increased by tenfold."
Bellatrix looked at the wand in her hand, then at the hole in the floor.
Her worldview collapsed.
This Potter monster not only robbed her, but turned her wand into a... nuclear-powered scrubbing brush?!
[System Alert: Bellatrix (Mental Breakdown + Extreme Craving for Power): Emotion Value +800!]
[System Alert: Onlooking Dark Wizards (Peed their pants + Want to be disciples): Emotion Value +300!]
"Alright, transaction complete."
Ivan stored the box with the Horcrux embryo in his System Space, then tossed a bag of Galleons to Bellatrix.
"This is for the materials. The extra is a tip; go fix your throat. Also, tell Voldemort..."
Ivan leaned in to Bellatrix's ear, whispering so only the two of them could hear:
"His diary tasted pretty good. If he has other 'Soul Fragments', remember to wash them clean before sending them over. I'm short on snacks lately."
With that, whistling a tune, Ivan swaggered out of the ruins of Madam Malkin's under the awed, fearful, and worshipful gazes of the dark wizards.
At the door, he stopped and looked back at the two remaining bronze statues.
"By the way, if the thing in that box explodes, it has enough power to level half of Knockturn Alley. You'd better not touch it."
The dark wizards who had just reached out to touch the box instantly yanked their hands back as if they'd touched a red-hot iron.
After Ivan left, Bellatrix finally regained her ability to speak.
She looked at the still-hot "Enhanced Wand" in her hand, then at the direction Ivan left.
She felt no anger. Instead, she licked her cracked lips, revealing a fanatical smile uglier than crying.
"Master..." she murmured. "This Potter... is more like a Dark Lord than You..."
Meanwhile, at the other end of Knockturn Alley.
Lucius Malfoy was hiding in a corner, watching the scene through a crystal ball.
He had squeezed his cane so hard it was deformed.
"Father," Draco shivered beside him. "Cousin Ivan... he turned Miss Bellatrix's wand into... a fire poker?"
Lucius took a deep breath and adjusted his tie.
"Draco, remember this."
Lucius's eyes shone with the light of "Ambition." "That is not a fire poker. That is a 'Magical Modification'. From today on, all Malfoy family businesses must upgrade to 'Potter-Class' standards!"
"Also," Lucius turned to his butler, "go pack ten crates of the most expensive 'Dragon Livers' in the shop and send them to Potter Manor. Just say... it's a 'Protection Fee'."