“I was hesitant at first, but Hermione practically begged me to help Harry in the trapdoor, so I can’t really say no to that.”

 

-Edgart Aldrich on the attempted stealing of the Philosopher’s stone.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was June, the end of year examinations were approaching, Ed was studying History of Magic in the library Richard, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Ed looked focused, because Theory lessons were his weakness, he drilled the lesson with Richard While Hermione was helping Ron and Harry, it was a weekend, so they stayed in the library for quite a long time, but suddenly, a particular blonde-haired girl approached the table.

“Hello, can I sit with you?” asked the girl, facing Richard and Ed.

Everyone looked at her, Ron saw her Slytherin badge and scoffed, Harry just narrowed his eyes, Hermione glared at Ed and Richard like they had done something horrible, Ed and Richard didn’t notice this, and Richard answered her.

“Oh, Daphne, um, okay.” He said, making some space for the girl.

“Interesting…” Ed said.

“What’s interesting?” Daphne questioned, frowning at the question, “Am I not allowed?”

“Oh no you’re welcome anytime,” Ed said, much to Hermione’s dismay, “But I seem to remember that you can’t be seen with us, especially with Richard.”

Daphne looked at Ed for a moment, then said, “Yes, that was the case before, but now that my mother knows about you, she actually told me to get closer with you and your friends, probably hoping we will have some sort of relationship or something.” She shrugged, not caring about what she said.

Hermione hearing this suddenly interrupted with a cough, and gave Daphne a not-so-friendly smile,

“Excuse me, but who are you?” she asked.

“Oh, where are my manners, Daphne Greengrass.” She said, she stretched her hand to Hermione.

Hermione shook her hand and just said flatly, “Hermione Granger.”

Harry, seeing this, also stretched his hand and introduced himself to the girl.

“Oh, um, Harry Potter.” Said Harry timidly.

Daphne, seeing this, just shook his hand and smiled rarely, but a bit forced, ‘that’s weird, she never smiled to anyone, even Richard and I rarely see this also.’ Ed thought, Richard too showed a strange look to Daphne, Ed thought about something, and grinned,

“Okay, I get it.” Ed said while looking at Daphne. Richard also thought about something, but after seeing Ed grinning, he instantly understood and grinned too.

Daphne, noticing the two boys, instantly changed her expression, to the usual cold look and frowned to the two boys.

“Get what?” she said with an angry tone.

Ed looked at Richard, the two had some sort of silent communication and smirked, the Richard said,

“You sure you want us to tell our conclusion in front of these people?”

Daphne, hearing this, frowned deeper, and quickly said, “No, your conclusion is probably right anyway, so there’s no way I will let them hear it.”

The other three just frowned at the statement, and Hermione asked suspiciously, “Hear what?”

“Nothing Hermione, Nothing.” Ed answered casually, continuing in his study. But Ron suddenly came closer to Ed, and whispered,

“Why did you let her sit here? She’s a Slytherin! And from those supremacists families as well!”

Ed looked at Ron weirdly, he took a deep breath and sighed, “You should drop your prejudice Ron, she may be a Greengrass, but as far as I know, she’s not into that kind of stuff.”

Ron just grumbled at the statement and continued to study. After that, the study session went peacefully without any problems, Hermione still gave Daphne stink eyes and sat closer to Ed, Ron ignored her existence, and not surprisingly, Daphne attempted to chat with Harry for the rest of the study session, which made Ed and Richard grinned even more.

Then, the exam came, the students were anxious, some were even still studying at the last minute, such as Hermione. It was Ed’s first exam, he was nervous too, especially on the history of magic.

The first exam is charms. Professor Flitwick asked them to make a pineapple dance across the table, for Ed it was easy, for others however, not so much, Harry barely made the pineapple dance, Ron can only make the fruit move, while Hermione, Richard, and Daphne passed easily.

After that it was Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall told them to turn a mouse into a snuff box. Again, for Ed it was easy enough, he even added a bit of decorations on it which McGonagall gave him extra points, Hermione and Daphne did well, while the rest, not so much. Richard barely passed, same as Harry, and Ron still had whiskers on his box.

Then, it was Potions, Professor Snape ordered them to brew a Forgetfulness Potion using just memory, he even made it harder by practically breathing down everyone’s neck, Ed was a bit nervous in this one, he forgot some things about the ingredients, but ultimately remembered it and passed the exam flawlessly. The same was true for everyone except for Ron and Harry.

And the last, the dreadful History of Magic, the test lasted for one hour, the test was about the invention of the Self-Stirring Cauldron, and Ed was surprisingly decent at answering the answers, he still left out a lot, but it was better than he thought, Richard and Hermione however, finished quickly, while the others struggled a bit.

After all the exams are over, Ed went to the usual classroom alone, he’s walking through the corridors, but then he was stopped by Malfoy, who had a letter in his hand.

“Aldrich!” he called, he was with his gang, Crabbe and Goyle.

Ed turned around to look at Malfoy, and answered the call, “Yeah?”

“Here,” Malfoy said, handing the letter in his hand, “From mother, I’m surprised Aldrich, that you turned out to be my cousin, I guess I’ll see you around.”

Ed took the letter and chuckled, “As long as you don’t make any trouble with me and my friends Malfoy, I’ve got no problems with you.” He then turned around, waved to Malfoy lazily, and continued to walk to the usual classroom.

He opened the letter and read it while walking, the content of the letter was pretty simple, just a lot of courtesies, the letter contains that Narcissa will pick him up in the summer, she will personally bring him to the Black ancestral home and brought him to grandfather, she will wait in the Leaky cauldron at the first of July.

Ed sighed in relief because she accepted the request, otherwise he would have to search the place himself. His deep thinking then was interrupted by a particular bushy-haired girl, Hermione.

“Ed!” she shouted.

Ed turned to the source of voice and smiled.

“Hello Hermione, have you seen your grades?” asked Ed.

“Yes, it’s quite good, the History of Magic is quite easier than I thought.” Hermione nodded.

“Don’t remind me Hermione, I’m horrible at History of Magic, ask something other than History of Magic please…” Ed said with a gloomy look.

“Oh, then where are you going right now?” noticing his face, Hermione changed the topic.

“Oh, I’m heading to the usual classroom right now, to meet Richard and Daphne.” Said Ed casually.

Hermione instantly frowned, and said, “Are you really friends with her? or does she have another motive?”

Ed looked at Hermione amusedly, then answered, “I’m good friends with her if that’s what you’re asking.”

“What about that relationship thing?” she asked, straight to the point.

“Oh,” Ed chuckled, “it doesn’t necessarily target me you know.”

“Meaning?” Hermione asked again, eyeing Ed suspiciously.

“You noticed last time she tried to get close to Harry?” Ed questioned.

Hermione thought for a while, then she realised something.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, but frowned instantly, “Isn’t the Greengrass family following the pureblood supremacy ideology? Why are they suddenly interested in Harry? Harry’s a half-blood.”

“Don’t know, ask her yourself.” Ed shrugged. Then they arrived at the entrance of the classroom. She asked Hermione if she wanted to come.

“You want to join? But you have to make an unbreakable vow if you want to see us training.”

“Unbreakable vow?” she questioned confusedly, “What happens if you break it?”

Ed’s face turned serious for a second, then said, “You die.”

“What?!” she exclaimed, “And you made the vow?” she asked worriedly.

“As long as you didn’t blab then you’re fine, it’s just reassurance, because we practice our family magic here, so it’s quite bad if it leaks out.”

“Family magic?” Hermione asked.

“Yes, a magic that is exclusive to a family, I got loads of those, like the lightning spells Snape mentioned at the troll incident.”

“That- That’s quite unfair is it? That the pureblood family has exclusive magic to their own, while us muggle borns start from scratch.” Hermione said gloomily.

“Well, it’s not really exclusive, it’s just that particular magic was kept by that family for their private consumption, so if you can get the manual or the book, you can learn it.”

Ed continued, “And it’s not really unfair Hermione, pureblood families have survived for hundreds of years because they stood strong and trained their descendants so the family won’t fall or extinct, getting a family magic is just reassurance for the survival of the family, remember, those family was born from nothing once too, so if you want that kind of privilege, you have to create those magic yourself.”

Then Ed tried to tease Hermione, He said, “Or marry into one.” And winked at her.

Hermione ignored the teasing and pondered awhile, then she said, “Fine, I’ll do the unbreakable vow.”

“But you can only watch you know; you can’t learn it.”

“It’s all right, maybe I can learn something from watching you training.” She just nodded.

“Okay then.” Ed then opened the door, and lo and behold, it’s empty, Richard and Daphne hadn’t come yet.

“Well, they haven’t come yet, make yourself at home then.” Ed said to Hermione.

Ed then tidied up the room, preparing for the training. He placed the desks facing each other, so they could talk and discuss easily, and sat in one of the chairs with Hermione beside him.

Then came the awkward silence, the room was quite warm because it was nearing summer, Ed then stood up and opened the window, to let the air in.

“So,” Hermione suddenly said, “Are you really coming to my house this summer?” she asked shyly.

“Yeah, I mean, we were invited.” Ed answered and looked at Hermione, “Is there a problem? It’s just a friendly dinner right? It’s not like I’m asking for your hand in marriage or something.” Ed joked, making Hermione blushed slightly and glared at Ed menacingly.

“Okay-okay, I won’t joke about it anymore,” Ed gave a sign to Hermione, “But what would your parents talk about? You know, just preparing. And what would your parents like for a gift?”

Hermione shook her head, “You don’t have to buy anything, my parents invited you to probably ask about the wizarding world, they were worried about me because it's a strange and new world you know, so they probably would’ve asked that at some point.”

Ed nodded, “Should I tell them the truth or a half truth?”

Hermione looked confused and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Well, do you want me to tell your parents that the wizarding world would probably be in another war for the next seven years or so, which is the whole truth, or do you want me to tell your parents that the wizarding world are relatively safe, which is a half-truth, because technically, that’s quite true if you only count this year, while it may not be true for the next years.”

“Y-You don’t know that…” Hermione said weakly.

“Well Hermione, turns out that my family is quite good at divination, and I saw a war is blooming in the dark.” Ed lied, he looked outside the window and sighed heavily.

Hermione just scoffed at the statement, and said, “Divination is a rather imprecise discipline, what makes you think I will believe your prediction will be accurate?”

“Well, I made a prophecy for this school year, you want to hear it?”

Hermione eyed Ed for a second, “Fine, let’s hear it.”

Ed nodded and coughed to clear his throat, then spoke,

“

The boy-who-lived will come to the place where his enemy flourished once…

he will find his purpose there; his enemy will hide among them…

on the night of the last days of the year 

his enemy will attempt to steal the stone that which will grant you immortality…

the boy-who-lived will face his enemy for the first time…

beware, the enemy that the-boy-who-lived suspects will be the one who protected him

“

The room went silent for a second, and Hermione pondered, “The enemy?”

“Well Hermione, who do you think is Harry’s enemy that also grew up in Hogwarts?” Ed asked.

“You-Know-Who…” She said weakly, then shouted, “Wait, how do you know that you-know-who’s trying to steal the philosopher’s stone?!”

Ed looked at Hermione, smiled, and acted like he didn’t know anything, “It’s a prophecy Hermione, I don’t know if what I said is true, I just predict, but from the sound of it, some of it is quite true, I know the first line is.”

Hermione looked dumbfounded that she just outed herself, she said that she didn’t believe in prophecy, but she proved that it is true herself, she changed her expression to a look of guilt, but before she could say anything, Ed went on to say,

“It’s fine Hermione, I’ve got my own secrets, and you’ve got yours.”

Hermione just nodded weakly, and suddenly, Richard and Daphne entered the room, the two Ravenclaw and Slytherin looked at the two Gryffindors, they smirked, and Richard commented,

“Well, I just request that for the next six years or so, don’t use this room for activities that we saw in our previous classroom Ed.”

Hermione just blushed, while Ed snorted, “Well, what took you so long? It’s already evening.”

“We were sorting out our grades to the professors, and what’s she doing here?” Daphne answered and pointed at Hermione.

“She wanted to watch our training, so I waited for you two so she could make the unbreakable vow.”

Daphne looked at Hermione suspiciously, and said, “You sure she can be trusted?”

“It’s an unbreakable vow Daphne, it doesn’t matter if you don’t trust her, she won’t blab anyway.”

Daphne just sighed, and relented, “Fine, suit yourself.”

Hermione then made the unbreakable vow to Richard, the content is the same as the other three, to ensure fairness.

After that, because this is the first time, the two purebloods will show their family magic first.

“Okay, me first.” Daphne said, “My family magic is basically connected to the family name, which means nature magic.”

Ed just hummed, and said, “you can control plants?”

“No, not like that, yes we can, but it’s more like nature itself. Animals, plants, disease, basically all that sort of stuff.”

Ed nodded, “that’s quite convenient.”

“Convenient?” Hermione said, “That’s powerful! You can kill an entire family with disease!”

“That’s what I said, quite convenient.” Ed said. “But why didn’t your family join the death eaters in the first war? Your family will be quite a powerful asset for the dark lord.”

“I-It’s a long story, I’ll tell you when I’m ready.” Stuttered Daphne, her face looking sad.

Ed just shrugged, and said, “Okay, can we see it? your magic I mean, there’s not plants or animals here though”

“Well, it’s what I’m here for right? Learning my family magic, so I can’t do it yet.”

“That’s disappointing.” Ed murmured. Then Richard asked Ed, “What about you Ed? What’s your family magic?”

“Well, you three already saw some of it.” Ed vaguely said.

“Really?” Richard and Daphne said at the same time.

“I remember the lightning you conjured to attack the troll we faced last semester, is that really one of them?” Hermione asked.

“Wait, you fought the troll that Halloween? You never told us about that, I thought that was Potter.” Daphne questioned.

“Really? I thought everyone knew about it.” Ed just answered while shrugging, then turned to Hermione.

“Yes, that’s one of them.” Ed then casted Muffliato charm on the room and aimed at one of the walls.

“Fulmens.” Ed chanted, the blue lightning bolt then appeared from the tip of his wand and shot through the wall, the lightning bolt sound echoed the room, marking it.

“Merlin that was loud!” Daphne complained while covering her ears, like the others.

Ed just shrugged and said, “That’s one of the spells, I’ve got more but it’ll destroy the room.”

Richard pondered for a while and asked, “Wait, so does your ice magic your family magic too?”

“Hm? Oh yes, that is too, you want me to show it again?”

“Oh no, no. You'll freeze half of the room again if you do it again.” Daphne suddenly interrupted.

“Freeze the room?” Hermione questioned.

“You remember that accident I told you about?” Ed said to Hermione.

“That was the accident?”

Ed just nodded, then continued, “Then there’s the white fire.” He said while summoning the warm fire that he used to warm Daphne when they first met.

“I can do much more than this, but it’ll burn the entire corridor.”

Daphne then questioned, “Then we already saw all your family magic? So why did you make us make an unbreakable vow?”

“Because there’s one more, or two for me anyway.” Ed answered.

Daphne looked confused, and continued to ask, “What do you mean?”

“Okay, first, my family doesn’t just have family magic.” Ed said, “We… have some sort of special blood.”

Ed looked at the confused expressions of the other three then continued, “Each of the family members has some sort of special ability that only him/her has.”

“Meaning?” Hermione questioned further.

“Well, it’s as I said, every member of the family is special, for example, my father can talk to all animals, a distant relative of mine can turn to mist.”

“Well, what about you?” Richard asked.

“Okay, Richard hit me with your best spell.” Ed asked Richard.

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Richard just nodded, he aimed at Ed and casted the Reductor curse.

Ed then chanted, “Aegis.”, the invisible shield then appeared, distorting the air around it. The spell vanished upon impact.

“So… that was it? Some sort of shield charm?” Daphne questioned.

Ed nodded, “A shield charm that can block everything, but that’s it, a shield that protects one direction, so if you shoot a spell that has an area of effect, I’m still dead, the shield can even protect me from the killing curse.”

Daphne suddenly turned serious, and asked, “Can we be taught that spell?”

Ed looked at Daphne suspiciously and said, “No, like I said, it’s exclusive only to me.”

Daphne shrugged, and mumbled, “Worth a try.”

“That’s quite unfair is it?” Hermione murmured, but everyone could hear her, “I mean, a special magic that can only be used by your blood.”

“The world IS unfair Hermione, like I said, if you want something special like family magic, you either have to make it yourself, steal it from other families, or marry into one.” Shrugged Ed.

Hermione nodded weakly, but Richard teased her and Ed, “Well, if you really want Hermione, Ed’s single you know, you could seduce him in the near future.” While winking at her. Hearing this Hermione blushed, Daphne snorted amusedly.

“We’re still kids Richard, stop bullying her.” Ed rolled his eyes.

“So, what’s the last family magic you have?” Richard changed the topic.

“Oh, that.” Ed said, but suddenly his body turned pitch-black and disappeared leaving traces of shredded ‘paper’ and appeared behind Richard. He then tapped Richard’s shoulder, scaring him.

“What was that?!” Richard shrieked.

The others were surprised too, they looked at Ed with curiosity, and Ed explained,

“Space magic.” Ed spoke, “I can only teleport, or blinking I call it a short distance for now, technically, I can manipulate space around me, but it’s too dangerous, so I only learn blinking for now, in the future though, I don’t know.”

Daphne then murmured, “I suddenly pitied those pureblood families your family wiped out, they don’t stand a chance at all.”

“What pureblood families?” Hermione asked.

“I’ll tell you later, it’s a long story.” Ed patted Hermione’s head.

“I can only ‘blink’ to the places I’ve been, seen, or know the coordinate of, and it’s nothing like apparition, it doesn’t make me throw up, and it’s untraceable, but I’m still a minor, so the ministry can still detect the magic, oh, I can bring people as well, but I never tried it.”

After that, the four went to practice on their own, Ed told Hermione his family history, earning a surprise look and the fear of Hermione, Ed quickly comforted Hermione, but he was adamant that his family did the right thing, otherwise the dark lord will continue to harass them. Hermione relented and gave up the idea of convincing Ed that it wasn’t the right thing to do and continued to watch the others practice.

After a couple of hours, it was near curfew, so they had to go back, they didn’t have dinner because they were too immersed in training, Ed and Hermione went back to the Gryffindor tower, Hermione stayed in the common room, and Ed went back to his dorm room, he changed into his sleeping clothes and lay on the bed.

‘It should be tonight.’ Ed thought, ‘But I pulled Hermione to the classroom, is that going to affect anything?’

Ed just shrugged on the bed, ‘not my problem anyway, he didn’t ask me for help.’ He thought. He then closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

A couple of hours later, Hermione who looked haggard and sweaty, was rushing to the owl post with a letter in her hand, she had dropped Ron to the hospital wing and asked Madam Pomfrey to write a letter to Dumbledore so she could sent it using the owls. She arrived at the place, quickly picked an owl, and told it to deliver it to Dumbledore. After that, she went back to the Gryffindor tower and went to the spiral staircase leading to the boys dormitory.

‘L-let’s ask Ed for help…’ she thought.

She then entered the common room, she saw Neville was laying on the floor, still petrified, “Oh Neville…” she whispered, and casted the counter curse for it. Neville then woke up and jumped because of the adrenaline.

“Neville! Listen to me!” Hermione shouted, which earned the attention of the round-faced boy, “I need you to lead me to your dorm room where Ed is, can you do it please? I’m sorry that I cursed you Neville, but it’s an emergency.”

Neville, who was scared of Hermione because she cursed him, nodded, “O-Okay.” He stuttered, he then stood up and led Hermione to his dorm room.

Ed, who was sleeping soundly on his bed, was suddenly woken up with a sudden rough shake. He groaned because it disturbed his sleep, he opened his eyes and saw Hermione looking messy and sweaty.

“H-Hermione? What are you doing here?” Ed asked, while pulling his sheets to cover his body, even though he isn’t naked.

“There’s no time Ed.” Hermione said looking panicked, “Your prophecy is true! Harry is in the trap door that Dumbledore forbid us to get close to, and You-Know-Who is probably in there! You’ve got to help him!”

Ed sighed, ‘in the end, I got dragged to the problem too.’

“Hermione.” Ed said sharply, “It’s Harry’s own choice to go there, why should I help?”

Hermione looked surprised at Ed’s question, she then said, “Because you’re his friend!?”

“A friend doesn’t drag his/her friend to their death Hermione.”

Hermione looked gloomy at Ed’s words, she looked like she wanted to cry,

“Please Ed, if you won’t do it for Harry, do it for me, please, He’s my friend!” she sobbed.

Looking at Hermione sobbing, Ed sighed heavily and relented, “Fine,” He said, “But I won’t help him if he does this sort of idiotic thing again.” Ed then stood up, and Hermione instantly hugged him.

“Thank you!” She whispered, she pulled him outside the room to drag him to the trap door.

“Wait!” Ed said. “Let me read your mind on where you last saw Harry, I never do this to a close friend or family, but this is an emergency, so we need to be quick.”

She felt reluctant for a while but ultimately nodded.

Ed then aimed his wand at her and chanted “Legilimens”, he got the general location of the potion room that Snape made, and asked Hermione, “Do you want to come?”

Hermione nodded weakly, then Ed got closer to her, the two then were covered in by a pitch-black bubble with a blue glow, then disappeared. Neville, who was watching this happened, whispered to himself.

“What just happened?”

A few moments later, Hermione and Ed appeared in a dark room that was surrounded by black flames.

“Where did he go?” Ed asked Hermione. She pointed at a direction and Ed went to it, the black flame was raging in front of him, he pointed his wand at it, and chanted,

“Glacius Maxima.”

A near absolute zero cold wind gushed to the direction the wand was pointing, because of the wind temperature, all of the flames suddenly disappeared and made the room extremely cold.

“I may have overdone it a bit…” Ed whispered, then he cast a white flame near Hermione, who was freezing, to warm her up. He doesn’t need to warm up because of his affinity for ice, so cold temperature doesn’t necessarily bother him, it just makes him uncomfortable.

“Let’s go Hermione, pull out your wand.” Ed said, leading the other to Harry's direction.

The two ran to the next room, the two then saw Quirrell was choking Harry, his face was blistering, so was his hand.

“HARRY!” Hermione shrieked, running towards him, but Ed stopped him, he then casted a Knockback jinx to Quirrell,

“Flipendo” Ed chanted, a blue blob of light suddenly shot towards the teacher, knocking him back towards the corner of the room, Ed then released Hermione who ran straight towards Harry, Ed saw Quirrell screaming in pain, slowly turning to dust.

“Watch out Hermione!” Ed shouted and ran near Hermione, the dust then slowly turned into a ghostlike figure, wearing a black robe, and an ugly face.

“YOU!” it shouted, “ALDRICH! IT IS ALWAYS YOUR FAMILY!”

“It’s your own fault Tom,” Ed calmly said to the ghost, “If only you weren’t so stubborn at recruiting us and attempted to kidnap one of our family, you succeeded back then, but at what cost?”

The ghost then rushed to him, but Ed blocked it with the Aegis spell, making the ghost slammed to the shield.

The ghost looked dumbfounded, but then Ed said, “Our revenge is far from over Tom, not until your pathetic legion is wiped out from this world.”

The ghost then ran away to the exit, leaving Ed, Hermione, and Harry in the room. Ed then looked at the surroundings, he saw the stone and took it, then he got near Hermione and asked her softly, “You okay Hermione?”

Hermione just nodded weakly, and said, “Let’s get Harry out of here.”

But before Ed could blink them out, Dumbledore suddenly showed up with a frozen beard.

“I assumed the cold room before was your doing Edgart.” He spoke while fixing his beard.

“Yes it was Headmaster, I might have overdone it a bit, but it did the job.” Ed casually answered.

Dumbledore just nodded and said, “No matter, let’s get Harry and Miss Granger out of here.”

“You go first, Headmaster, I want to check this mirror a bit, I really want to see what deep desire hidden within me, I’ll go to your office after that.”

Dumbledore frowned, and said, “Be careful of that mirror Edgart, it can be addictive.”

“I know Professor, I just want to check it out, after that I’ll probably destroy it.” Said Ed to the Headmaster, which he nodded, then turned back to Hermione, “I’ll see you later Hermione, take care of Harry.” He ruffled her hair.

A couple of minutes later, Dumbledore, Harry, and Hermione were gone, leaving Ed alone, he looked at the Mirror of the Erised, he saw himself, with his family and friends, he saw his father, his mother, his grandfather, he saw Gilligan and another Giant Owl that he didn’t recognize, probably Baldeth, he also saw a young woman, probably his aunt ruffing his hair on the mirror, he saw Richard and Daphne, and Hermione, all of them were considered family to him, he touched the mirror, smiled sadly, his eyes were a bit wet, but then he punched the mirror, and broke it.

He sighed heavily and said, “I’ll see you soon, father, mother.”

He then disappeared, leaving only traces of pitch-black shredded paper.