In less than half an hour at the bar, Harry had been hiccupping non-stop the entire time.

In the end, the adults had no choice but to book four hotel rooms early and send Harry off to rest. The other three stayed behind in a bright, well-ventilated corner of the lobby and pulled out a deck of cards.

Afternoon...

"Are we seriously going to sit here and play cards all day?" Sirius looked at the absolute garbage hand he'd been dealt and sighed in defeat.

"What else do you want to do?" Lupin tossed two Galleons into the center of the table.

"Don't you think it's kind of a waste? We finally got a trip out—and we're just sitting here playing cards? This is Sicily! Fast cars, fine wine, gorgeous women—so many gorgeous women! We're three grown men, shouldn't we be out there galloping wild and free?" Sirius said, undoing the top button of his shirt.

"Not interested. I've got no time for worldly desires. Dating would only slow down my progress in alchemy." Kasen shook his head.

"What about you, Remus?"

Lupin's face turned a little red. "Well… I've actually been chatting with Tonks these past few days. I've got this weird feeling she… might actually like me."

"...Alright, I'm gonna go find Harry. He's probably inherited his dad's wild and adventurous genes. Maybe I can help him spark a sweet, awkward little romance here." Sirius stood up and strolled toward the elevators.

"Can you act a little more like a proper godfather?" Kasen picked up a Galleon from the table and chucked it straight at the back of Sirius's head.

"Ow~!"

Stumbling from the hit, Sirius bent down to pick up the Galleon, rubbing the back of his head. "Come on, I was just joking! I was gonna call him down so we could all go sunbathe on the beach!" With that, he shamelessly pocketed the coin and stepped into the elevator.

About half an hour later, a loud bang suddenly echoed in Kasen and Lupin's ears—followed immediately by Sirius's voice.

"You used a projection charm? What's so urgent?" Lupin asked, confused.

"Harry's gone!" Sirius's voice exploded in their ears, laced with suppressed panic and madness!

Kasen and Lupin exchanged a glance.

In the next moment, one of them rushed to the front desk to check the security footage, while the other grabbed Sirius and headed to the stairwell, Disapparating into Harry's room to look for clues.

Over at the front desk, Kasen stared at the security monitors for a long time. They'd been playing cards for a whole hour—but in that hour, not a single person had entered Harry's room.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to keep a straight face so the staff wouldn't start asking questions.

The next second, inside the stairwell, he used the Ender teleportation to instantly teleport into Harry's room. "It's either Harry sleepwalking and cosplaying as a failed Batman—or some damn wizard's behind this!"

Sirius and Lupin were already there, wands drawn, carefully combing the room.

"There's definitely magical residue here," Sirius muttered, "but we can't trace where it went."

"Alright, one of you head back to England and get Dumbledore—have him look into whether any leftover Death Eaters might've caught wind of our location. One of us stays here and holds down the fort. And even if Italy doesn't have a Ministry, someone's gotta be in charge of the local magical affairs, right?" Kasen rattled off quickly.

"Beauxbatons recruits from Italy, so sometimes the French Ministry keeps an eye on the Italian magical world," Sirius reminded.

"Then I'm heading to the French Ministry of Magic!" Kasen said—and the moment the words left his mouth, he used Ender teleportation and vanished from the spot.

...

French Ministry of Magic...

Kasen was here to ask for help this time, so naturally, he couldn't just barge into the Minister's office waving a sword and start greeting people with violence.

A softer touch was needed.

He went up to the front desk to get an appointment slip, then found a lucky soul who was currently waiting to meet with the Minister.

"What number are you?" Kasen asked.

The lucky guy scratched his head. "I'm up next. Why?"

"Perfect. Let's switch." Before the poor man could react, Kasen had already swapped their appointment slips and casually shoved two pounds of gold into his hands. "Go stand in line like a good boy."

Without a care for the confused man, and without bothering to check whether the previous meeting had finished, Kasen casually strolled up to the Minister's office door, muttered a quick unlocking spell, and walked right in.

"Morgan Saint-Jean, Italy's young wizards are all under France's jurisdiction now, right?"

The French Minister of Magic, Morgan Saint-Jean, stared at the familiar face that had suddenly barged in… He thought back to the Daily Prophet's England section, and his old rheumatism started acting up again.

"…Hmm?"

Morgan nodded. "That's correct."

"Well then, since France inherited those benefits, shouldn't it also bear the corresponding responsibilities? My student, Harry Potter, was kidnapped by a wizard at a hotel in Sicily. The French Ministry of Magic will take responsibility, right?"

Kasen gave him a stiff smile as he spoke.

Morgan looked at the alchemy professor in front of him—who clearly had no interest in following any sort of protocol—and instinctively nodded.

After all, if he shook his head, he might end up having to ask Cornelius Fudge where he'd gotten his alchemical prosthetics made.

"Please, explain what happened."

"He vanished from his hotel room within an hour. I reviewed the security footage—no one entered the room, and he didn't come out. That means it had to be magic. So, I need access to all individual wizards and magical organizations currently active within Italy. And I need your Aurors to assist us!" Kasen said all in one breath.

"…No problem," Morgan said stiffly, taking a deep breath.

"Thank you, Minister." For once, Kasen actually spoke like a normal person.

"Oh—thank you. I've already summoned the Head of the Auror Office. In the meantime, let me fetch the Italian magical archives for you. You'll find information on nearly every wizard and magical group in there."

As he spoke, Morgan stood up and rummaged through the bookshelf behind him for a while before finally pulling out two massive folders. "The larger one is for individuals, the smaller one is for groups."

"Thank you for your help, Minister Morgan." Kasen immediately tore open the folder on magical groups—after all, he didn't believe that thirteen-year-old Harry could've made enemies with any individual wizard. Dumbledore would handle things on the England side; Kasen's job was to figure out what was going on in Italy.

So he didn't start with individuals, but with organizations.

After all, it could very well be some shady wizarding gang pulling a classic kidnapping-for-ransom stunt… not super likely, but still.

Then, as soon as he flipped open the first page, he frowned and skimmed through the French and English translations.

What he saw was a name he'd just recently become familiar with.

[Templar Brotherhood]

_________

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