Just as Fleur was worrying over it, Leonard snapped out of his thoughts, noticed her predicament, and glanced at the Sopophorous bean in her hand.
"What are you so troubled about?"
"The Sopophorous beans. Do you have any ideas?" Fleur asked.
"Oh, Sopophorous beans." Leonard happened to know this one. "It's simple. If slicing them feels too difficult, why not change the method? For example, crush them with the flat of the knife. The Draught of Living Death only needs the juice from the Sopophorous beans anyway."
"Wait... that can't be right." Before Fleur could react, Giggs was the first to protest. "That's not what the book says."
Leonard looked at Giggs in surprise. "Didn't you say you were a fairly prominent figure among potion makers? How can you still trust what's written in books so completely?"
"What does that have to do with anything? I've been reading those books for years, and they've never been wrong." Giggs shrugged. "As for the method you mentioned... I'm a little doubtful."
"What's there to doubt? Even Muggle children know that much." Leonard shrugged.
"Muggles? No, how can Muggle methods be mentioned in the same breath as potions?"
Giggs sounded deeply unwilling, as if Leonard had said something outrageous.
After hearing that, Leonard lost interest in continuing. There was a reason wizards had made so little real progress over the centuries.
"I think it's worth trying," Fleur said from the side. She did not argue back. Instead, she looked thoughtfully at the Sopophorous bean in her hand. "There's no harm in trying."
"Then try it yourself. Don't come asking me about this sort of thing anymore. You can work it out on your own." Giggs reacted strongly, shook his head, and plainly ushered them out. "I'll submit your competition application later. You don't need to come here again."
"Then we'll be going." Fleur's expression did not change in the slightest. After paying for the ingredients, she left the herb shop with Leonard, carrying several bags.
Outside the herb shop, Fleur rolled her eyes at Leonard. "And you said you weren't good at potions. You clearly know quite a bit about ingredient handling."
"Yeah, knew enough to get us thrown out by Giggs." Leonard shrugged.
"So what now? I still wanted to ask Mr. Giggs for some tips, and in the end I got kicked out just for speaking up for you." Fleur sounded innocent enough.
"When does that competition start?" Leonard asked.
"In April. The competition grounds are in a magical botanical garden. We'll need to search the garden for ingredients and then brew a potion. The whole process is timed in stages," Fleur said.
"If it's in April, then there's no rush." Leonard thought for a moment. "I'll mail you a book later."
"A book? That probably won't help. I've already read all the books suitable for me. If it's something more advanced, I probably won't understand it." Fleur shook her head.
"You'll know when the time comes..." Leonard said.
Then he spotted Claudia running back carrying a bag of sweets, and naturally went over to meet her.
"Leonard, here, have some candy." Claudia beamed, offering it to him as if asking for praise.
"Then thanks." Leonard casually picked out a piece, popped it into his mouth, and rubbed Claudia's little head.
"You two really are close..." Fleur's ghostly voice sounded from behind Leonard, making the hairs on his back stand up.
"Sister Delacour." Claudia was delighted to see Fleur as well. Smiling, she held out the candy to her. "Sister, have some candy."
Fleur looked at the high-calorie sweets, hesitated for a moment, then decided she could not disappoint little Claudia's good intentions and reluctantly ate a small piece.
"By the way, Fleur, you're staying at the Leaky Cauldron too, right? Let's head back together," Leonard said.
"Too?" Fleur looked at Leonard, then at Claudia, and her face darkened. "Wait... you mean..."
"It's not as dramatic as you're thinking." Leonard waved a hand. "We're staying in the same room, but we sleep in separate beds."
Things were different now. Leonard's body had already started to show signs of development, so to avoid any "happy little accidents," he was very careful to keep some distance from Claudia.
After all, both of them were still young. If anything really happened, it would probably be bad for their health.
"That's more like it." Fleur's expression improved a little, but only a little. "Still, since we're all staying at the Leaky Cauldron, Claudia can stay with me."
"I don't want to." Before Leonard could say anything, Claudia objected first.
She clung to Leonard's arm and looked at Fleur warily, as if she were staring at a bad woman.
"Claudia doesn't want to leave Leonard," Claudia said firmly.
Fleur had not expected to hit a wall on Claudia's side. She had assumed Leonard would be the one to object, and that left her feeling awkward, as though she had been getting ahead of herself.
"All right, we can talk about the room later. Let's get lunch first," Leonard said, smoothing things over. "It's already this late. Aren't you two hungry?"
"I'm hungry. I want mushroom soup," Claudia said.
"What about you, Fleur?" Leonard asked. "Want to join us?"
Fleur nodded with restrained grace.
"Then let's go." Leonard took Claudia's hand, and the three of them headed back to the Leaky Cauldron together.
As soon as they walked in, Leonard heard a burst of noise coming from inside the Leaky Cauldron.
That was unusual. Even though it was a pub in name, the Leaky Cauldron was usually even more subdued than a quiet bar in the Muggle world. Normally, even a bunch of drunkards would watch their volume. What was going on today?
Puzzled, Leonard had Fleur and Claudia find a table and sit down, then went to the counter to place their order with Tom, the owner, and ask what had happened.
At that moment, Tom was huddled together with a group of people, muttering about something, and did not notice Leonard at all. Left with no choice, Leonard rang the bell loudly to get his attention.
"Mr. Abbott, two mushroom soups and one Burgundy beef stew," Leonard said.
"Oh, sorry, William, I got too caught up talking." Tom apologized. "I've got your order. Would you like anything to drink?"
"No." Leonard shook his head. "What were you all talking about? You looked pretty excited."
"Oh, we were talking about today's front-page story in the Daily Prophet." As he called instructions toward the kitchen, Tom set a newspaper in front of Leonard. "A dangerous prisoner escaped."
"I see. No wonder everyone's so worked up." Leonard sounded surprised, but in truth he did not care in the least and did not even glance at the paper. After all, he was the one who had set it in motion. Once Grindelwald was provoked by the news that Dumbledore was going to die, there was no way he would sit still.
"Exactly. Who would have thought someone could escape from Azkaban?" Tom shook his head.
"Yeah, that's Azka... wait, what did you say?" Leonard froze and immediately pressed for clarification.