In general, Nott served society. But this is not the end of the story. Nott Sr. realized that his son was at risk of becoming a guinea pig and quickly stole him. He teamed up with Selwyn, who was released from prison, trying to somehow restore his family’s mansion, and they went to take revenge with such a simple company. Well, it’s understandable. But to take revenge on me personally is a problem. It was clear without a clue that they wouldn’t make it. So they decided to hit the people important to me … I found out about it as follows…

End of February. Hermione and I walk through the corridors of the castle. A couple of minutes ago, we finished all imaginable and unimaginable calculations on the magic accumulator and exchanged the studied data on the Restricted Section. In general, the mood is upbeat. Malfoy and his company come around the corner… Quite a small company. Just Crabbe and Goyle. At the sight of me, they turned pale as one, but to my surprise, they didn’t try to turn aside, as they usually did. Draco took an open letter out of his robe pocket and silently handed it to me.

Of course, before I took it in my hands, I magically checked it for surprises. It was clean.

Part of the letter was erased by magic, and in response to my questioning look directed at Draco, he swallowed and answered briefly: “Personal.” Well, all right.

The rest of the letter, clearly written by Narcissa, talked about the ridiculous attack of Nott with his son, Selwyn, and five mercenaries. In order not to worry Draco, Narcissa immediately mentioned that she had been in the company of his dearest aunt lately. Although the name is not specified, but there can be no doubt who this aunt is. Anyway, this “auntie” had gone so wild that only Nott Jr. and Selwyn Jr. were able to leave the scene of the altercation alive and almost unharmed.

This provoked my displeasure, and for a week, I thought of where and how to find them to express it in a deadly rude manner, but I didn’t have to do so. A week after reading the letter, in early March, another letter arrived. It was very formal and on paper, not parchment. The letter came from MACUSA, which surprised and alarmed me. What surprised me even more was that it was addressed to Maximilian Alexander Black-Knight, which was rather… suspicious. Its content was simple and disturbing. It turned out that Nott and Selwyn had somehow obtained information about where John and Sarah had moved to, and had decided to attack them to exact revenge on me. But, as it turns out, the Knights had gone through the magical authorities when they moved to the States and were registered there as my non-magical guardians. It turns out that MACUSA has a very good information gathering process in other countries, and they found out that I was the only possible potential or already the actual Head of the House of Black, which is already an influence. Also, the Americans, as it turned out, are not indifferent to various rumors. They took the fact of Voldemort’s rebirth as a given and my interference in his activities at the Tournament. And so, there was organized magical surveillance of the Knights.

Given the stricter control of magical law and order in the States, Nott and Selwyn, who’d arrived illegally, were immediately “under the radar,” and as soon as they pointed their wand at the Knight home, the Aurors of the States caught them in the act. So, that was the end. Why the end? By the time they got to Knights, those idiots had exposed the Statute several times, killed a few people, and used the Unforgivable a few times. In magical America, that’s the death penalty. That’s it.

Other than that, everything was as usual. The information about the “revival” of several Houses, about the beginning of their financial activity and other things, was indeed confirmed, but again through the schoolchildren – now and then someone told how the activities of the businesses and firms frozen in the year eighty-one were renewed, Neville enthusiastically told that the Magical Botanic Garden had started functioning again, and several farms for growing important plants for various branches of industry. All of this began after Voldemort’s death. It seems to me that my official appearance in the Wizengamot led others to believe that the Ministry could be sent into the dark forest on this matter, and they decided to enter the Hall of Heritage secretly, which was accomplished during the operation to lure Potter into the Ministry. They got access to the official resources and wanted to use them for the “good cause of blood purity,” but then Voldemort passed away, and they couldn’t let that go to waste. So they launched everything that was available, resumed financing, and so on. Well, that’s how I see it — who knows how really?

There has also been some progress in studies, by the way. After writing to Lady Greengrass a few times, Hermione and I have chosen appropriate topics for scientific publications. Hermione was relatively lucky, because our project with Flitwick requires several types of previously unused transfiguration. We got four topics on healing magic, four on chimerology… And a lot of literature to keep us on our toes. In healing magic, by the way, the practical classes on treatment had been put aside, and now there was only diagnostics. It was a lot simpler here, and some subspecies of magical mice, rats, and rabbits were used. It didn’t matter who was on the surgical table. Only the nuances in the magical response to diagnostic spells and the ability to read the very three-dimensional charts Delphine had once shown me were important. And practice in chimerology is postponed for an unknown period of time, for this science is devilishly unprofitable for the wallet, and it would be better for everyone to go on a “chimerological journey” through magically hidden domains and other natural space folds, to search, hunt and sort out various nuances….