Lucas rented a room at the Leaky Cauldron as his temporary base.
After parting ways with the Grangers, he spent the rest of the day wandering through the Muggle world buying supplies.
Pots.
Pans.
Seasonings.
Large amounts of ingredients.
And naturally—
Food for Nagini as well.
Because time remained completely frozen inside his storage ring, all food placed within stayed permanently fresh.
Lucas purchased huge quantities of meat before stuffing everything into an enlarged bag enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm.
Then he stored the entire bag inside his ring.
After testing things carefully, he confirmed that food inside the enlarged bag still remained perfectly preserved once placed into the ring's frozen storage space.
Of course, magical spaces containing living creatures still could not be stored.
Newt Scamander's suitcase, for example, would never fit inside unless every creature inside it was removed first.
As for why Lucas bought so many ingredients—
The answer was simple.
He had finally reached his limit with British cuisine.
In his previous life, he had actually been a fairly skilled cook.
Unfortunately, that also meant his standards for food were high.
After enduring bland British meals for so long, his patience had completely run out.
So that evening—
Lucas cooked hot pot in his room.
Although finding proper ingredients and seasonings in Britain remained difficult, he still managed reasonably well.
The result tasted fantastic.
As he happily ate alone beside the bubbling pot, Lucas suddenly felt—
Maybe he truly suited Hufflepuff best.
He liked good food.
He preferred peace and stability.
He disliked unnecessary conflict.
The other three Houses honestly did not appeal to him much.
Even though he knew Cassandra would almost certainly enter Slytherin, Lucas still had no intention of following her there.
He had only just escaped suspicion of becoming a future Dark Lord.
Joining Slytherin immediately afterward practically screamed suspicious behavior.
As for Ravenclaw—
With his current intelligence level, entering a hyper-competitive academic environment sounded exhausting.
And Gryffindor…
Lucas honestly wanted no part of that either.
Although Professor McGonagall would probably feel disappointed, Lucas strongly suspected entering Gryffindor would dramatically increase the amount of dangerous nonsense happening around him constantly.
Hufflepuff sounded ideal instead.
Quiet.
Safe.
Low suspicion.
He could peacefully develop his abilities there while secretly growing stronger.
And occasionally, he could use his "prophetic powers" to feed Dumbledore carefully selected spoilers.
Ideally, they would eventually trap Voldemort permanently before resurrection even became possible.
And even if they failed—
By the time Voldemort returned, Lucas should already possess enough strength to protect himself properly.
As for getting sorted into Hufflepuff?
With full mastery of Occlumency, manipulating the Sorting Hat sounded extremely manageable.
After finishing his meal, Lucas lazily collapsed onto the bed while his thoughts drifted aimlessly.
Eventually—
He fell asleep.
…
Some unknown amount of time later, Lucas vaguely felt something warm nudging against him.
He slowly opened his eyes sleepily.
Then instantly froze.
A massive crimson bird stood beside his bed.
"…Fawkes?"
Lucas immediately woke completely.
The phoenix calmly dropped a letter and a folded parchment onto the bed beside him.
Then it looked at him expectantly.
Lucas quickly grabbed several uncooked slices of lamb from the hot pot ingredients still sitting nearby and offered them over.
Fawkes swallowed the meat happily in a single bite.
Apparently satisfied, the phoenix immediately accepted more.
Lucas gently stroked the bird's warm feathers while feeding it beef as well.
The feathers felt smooth and strangely comforting.
Only after Fawkes finished eating did Lucas finally pick up the sealed letter.
It carried Dumbledore's personal seal.
Lucas set it aside temporarily before opening the folded parchment instead.
A small golden key fell onto the bed immediately.
Lucas picked it up.
His expression gradually became stranger and stranger while reading the parchment's contents.
Several moments later—
He finally looked completely stunned.
After remaining silent briefly, Lucas grabbed a quill and quickly wrote several words onto the back before handing the parchment back to Fawkes.
By now, the phoenix had already devoured all available meat nearby.
Fawkes gently took the parchment before erupting into brilliant fire once more.
Then the phoenix vanished instantly.
Lucas remained sitting motionless on the bed afterward.
The plot had officially started going completely off the rails.
According to Dumbledore's instructions—
Lucas was supposed to personally deliver Harry Potter's Hogwarts letter on Harry's birthday.
Then escort Harry to Diagon Alley.
Then retrieve the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts before personally bringing it to Hogwarts at the start of term.
Lucas nearly doubted his own eyes.
Weren't all those originally Hagrid's responsibilities?
Why had they suddenly become his job instead?
And most absurdly—
Dumbledore's letter explicitly identified the object inside Gringotts as the Philosopher's Stone.
Not vaguely.
Not indirectly.
Directly.
The letter even carefully explained what the Philosopher's Stone actually was.
A legendary alchemical object capable of turning metal into gold and brewing the Elixir of Life.
Lucas felt genuinely baffled.
Why was Dumbledore telling him all this so openly?
That level of trust was ridiculous.
He wasn't Hagrid.
Dumbledore should not trust him this much.
Unless…
Lucas slowly narrowed his eyes.
"…He's testing me."
That suddenly made much more sense.
Dumbledore was simultaneously trusting him and testing him.
The old man had likely not fully dismissed the possibility that Lucas possessed some connection to Voldemort.
So now Dumbledore intended to use both Harry Potter and the real Philosopher's Stone as bait.
If Lucas truly harbored dark intentions, this mission would expose them immediately.
After understanding the situation, Lucas sighed deeply before tossing both the letter and Harry's vault key into his storage ring.
What a contradictory old man.
He suspected Lucas—
Yet simultaneously trusted him enough to gamble everything on him.
If Lucas truly worked for Voldemort, he could simply grab Harry and the Philosopher's Stone before fleeing directly to resurrect the noseless lunatic immediately.
Still…
Once he safely returned both Harry and the Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts, most suspicion surrounding him would probably disappear entirely.
And once he entered Hufflepuff afterward—
Nobody would ever seriously suspect him of becoming a Dark Lord again.
Of course…
That assumed the system did not suddenly ruin everything.
Right as that thought crossed his mind—
The familiar mechanical voice immediately sounded.
"Ding! New mission released!"
Lucas instantly sat upright in horror.
"…I knew it."
....
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