Chapter 378: Draco beats around the bush

"Just consider it finished." Ron twisted his body, "Let's go to Diagon Alley to buy books first."

"That works too. We can study the Knight matter after school starts." Zhang Qiu let out a sigh of relief, "Let's head out. I see the driver is already waiting at the entrance."

Harry ran upstairs to call his sister. When he came down, he noticed Ron's expression changing repeatedly.

Along the way, Harry steered the conversation. The group mainly discussed school matters. Eve was curious about who would be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, while Zhang Qiu looked forward to Hagrid's return. Only Ron gazed out the window, looking uninterested. Harry guessed he was likely worried about the homework he hadn't finished yet.

The car stopped slowly on Charing Cross Road. The Muggle driver couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron, so he could only wait on the spot for them to return.

The Leaky Cauldron was still noisy. After Harry entered, the crowd suddenly cheered.

"Just passing through, gentlemen, I'm just passing through." Harry waved his hand helplessly.

They shook off the onlookers, went to the small courtyard in the back, and tapped the brick wall with their wands.

Diagon Alley was slightly different; a few new restaurants or cafes had opened. Harry scanned them briefly, then strode toward the robe shop.

"I feel last year's school robes are a bit short, and Ron should be the same." He said, "You two don't look like you've changed much, but girls never hate new clothes."

"Too bad it's just school robes." Eve pouted.

Just as they walked into the shop, they heard a familiar voice from behind a row of blue and green robes.

"... I think we need to add a bit of blue-gold. You know, Mother, I am no longer the person I once was."

After a series of cooing sounds similar to a hen hatching eggs, a young man stepped out from behind the clothing rack with a proud gait. He was wearing a beautiful dark green robe, with dark gold pins pinned to the trim and cuffs. He strode to the mirror and examined himself carefully.

A moment later, he noticed Harry and his group.

"Ah, what a coincidence." Draco said affectedly, "Friends, I am truly happy to see you here."

"Is he always like this?" Ron looked at Eve suspiciously; the latter hadn't said few good things about Draco.

"Doesn't seem like it..." Harry muttered, "Draco, you look extremely happy. Did you encounter any good news recently? Is it because your father was promoted—I haven't had the chance to congratulate you yet."

Draco's gaze shifted to Ron. He seemed to suddenly remember that he was the son of a Department Head talking to the son of the Minister, and his tone instantly became much more gentle, "Ah, yes, sorry, I got a bit carried away. But it is indeed a very happy thing. We have caught up with an unprecedented great change in the Wizarding World..."

"You aren't talking about the Knight System, are you?" Zhang Qiu's eyes widened sharply.

"Ah?" Draco gave a sudden start. In an instant, he returned to the humble manner he had last year, "Yes, I was just saying, how could Harry not know about this... May I, um, ask privately, what kind of bottle are you suited for?"

"Bottle? Do you have a belt?" Zhang Qiu stared at him with a scrutinizing gaze, "Who gave it to you?"

"A bit of the Malfoy family's connections." Draco said with feigned modesty, "This matter is currently the talk of the upper echelons, so my father got one for me."

No one showed an expression of belief.

Draco looked elsewhere with a bit of a guilty conscience, then retreated in a panic: "Getting off track, sigh, we can chat in detail later. Now I have to go to, uh—my mother is waiting."

"Perhaps this is the reason Master and Uncle are arguing." Zhang Qiu whispered, "They have some disagreements regarding the circulation of the Knight System."

"He sounds too fake," Eve picked at it from the perspective of a passerby, "If that belt were really something good, Lucius would have gotten one for himself before giving it to Draco, and he would definitely have presented one to the Minister as well."

"That's actually not the case. I remember Uncle mentioning that using the belt requires mobilizing sufficient emotions." Zhang Qiu explained, "The stronger the emotion, the stronger the combat power. He has a danger level classification for this, and if the level is below 3.0, one cannot use the Knight System."

"Indeed, adults' emotions are much flatter compared to young boys and girls." Harry nodded. He felt this was somewhat similar to the Patronus Charm.

"Sorry, children, kept you waiting." Madam Malkin walked out enthusiastically, while Draco gave them an awkward smile, then fled, pulling his mother along.

After they bought their books, they wandered around Diagon Alley and also took a peek at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Fred and George's business was quite booming; they tirelessly researched and improved various magical tricks, which were very popular.

"Oh, Harry, there's something I think you need to know." Fred said quietly to him, "Recently, people have been coming to us to buy Weasley fireworks."

"What's wrong with that?"

"There's nothing wrong with that, but they asked to buy more powerful fireworks, which is very strange." Fred whispered, "We think you should let the Order of the Phoenix keep an eye on it."

"I will report it." Harry nodded and returned to the crowd.

He understood very well why the two brothers didn't report this to the Ministry of Magic. For one, they were worried their original stock of fireworks would be confiscated; for another, the Ministry of Magic was currently busy drawing up factions and probably didn't have time to pay attention to such undercurrents.

Just as they walked out of the joke shop's door, they saw someone standing at the corner. It was Draco.

"Oh, Harry, sorry to bother you, but there's something I want to clear up immediately," he asked in a low voice, "You know the origin of the belt, don't you?"

Harry looked at Zhang Qiu.

"This should be my Uncle's invention." She spoke up, "This shouldn't have leaked out. Where did your belt come from?"

"I'm not sure. A mysterious person gave it to me, but Father seems to trust him." Draco rubbed his face, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Could it be that the Malfoy family has been drawn into some vortex of your Heavenly Dynasty?"

"It's fine, maybe Master has other arrangements." Zhang Qiu shook her head gently.

"Then I'll keep holding onto it?" Draco said with a bit of luck, "Having a bit of self-preservation ability is always good."

"Yes, it's hard for you to have this talent." Zhang Qiu gave him a lukewarm look.

"That's good too. See you another day." The smile returned to Draco's face, "Perhaps we can spar sometime."

The young master who had gone far away resumed his arrogant gait. Harry ruminated on Draco's performance and couldn't help asking: "A belt, makes him this proud?"

"Yes, this is the confidence the Knight System brings to people." Zhang Qiu answered very seriously.

"He asked Harry what bottle he was suited for. Is it that for different people, the elements in that bottle are also different?" Harboring a desire to try the belt, Ron couldn't help but start thinking.

"Why don't you just go ask Draco?" Eve complained, "This sounds like a quite complicated matter. How can you make it clear by beating around the bush?"

"No, I'm worried this is also some kind of arrangement by Master." Zhang Qiu said, biting her lip, "He hopes to let Ron and Draco fight each other, because Knights get stronger the more they fight."

"There's such a saying?"

"After every transformation battle, the emotions during the battle will slightly remain in the energy bottle and will resonate with you during the next transformation, making your emotions more intense. This is the origin of the saying that one gets stronger the more one fights. And it is said that after emotions fill the energy bottle, it will become something that belongs exclusively to you. Uncle calls it a 'Full Bottle'."

"Wow, do you know it this clearly?" Harry looked at Zhang Qiu cautiously. According to her, it seemed everyone in the Heavenly Dynasty tacitly assumed that Ron would be the one to use this belt, which made him feel a bit strange.

"Yes, I have entered Uncle's memory before." Zhang Qiu brought this up again, "So when this was mentioned just now, I remembered it."

"So you don't want to show weakness in front of Draco?" Eve asked, confused, "Are you afraid you can't beat him?"

"Right, if I lose to anyone, I can't lose to a Malfoy." Ron said indignantly, "Once I study how to use this belt clearly, I must go to his house personally and beat him until he's looking for his teeth."

"Be careful, Ron." Zhang Qiu reminded, "You must know what you are fighting for. Negative emotions are not recognized by the Knight System."

"That's one thing. There's another question: do you know who gave Malfoy the belt? Are there any factional struggles within the Heavenly Dynasty?" Harry asked.

"First of all, I can be sure that there are no struggles within us. Everyone listens to Master Master Xuanjun." Zhang Qiu waved her hand, "Then we might suspect the identity of that mysterious person. This requires waiting a bit. I need some time to figure out what exactly my Master's plan is."

"The time you mentioned refers to—" Harry's gaze shifted to her pocket, "You need to enter your Uncle's memory again to understand what he is thinking? Or if necessary, write a letter to ask Master Master Xuanjun directly?"

"Because if you think about it from this perspective, if Master Master Xuanjun had some kind of scheme, why would he tacitly allow you to give the belts to us? What role does he hope for us to play in all of this?" Harry began to speculate on Ge Ge Xuan's intentions without any reservation. Because in his understanding, since the Knight System was a very powerful, epoch-making weapon, Ge Ge Xuan really shouldn't have handed such a thing over to children who had just reached their sixth year.

"I can only say I will figure these things out as soon as possible." Zhang Qiu was silent.

"Don't tell Ma Erfu." Harry tapped Ivy, who looked like she was enjoying the spectacle and didn't mind the chaos, "Let's head back first."