[Got it.]
No surprise, no follow-up questions, not even any extra emotion. The reply was extremely brief, yet it seemed to contain a powerful sense of confidence and control.
Michael froze for a moment, then let out a long breath.
—Right, Vid wasn't the careless Neville or Harry. If even he had noticed something, how could Vid possibly have missed it?
The level Vid was operating on, and the situations he had to deal with, were far more complicated than Michael had imagined. If he were the careless type, he'd probably already be dead.
Besides, he had Alastor Moody at his side, a man with vigilance written into his very bones…
But if the same thing happened again next time, Michael would still send the message.
Out of a hundred warnings, even if ninety-nine were redundant, as long as one of them worked, then all one hundred were worth it.
Michael forced a faint unease back down into his heart, picked up his backpack, and silently followed his parents.
There were far more people in economy class. The line stretched on and on. Michael looked up at the passengers in front, and then frowned again—
Turned out it wasn't just first class; even in economy, the proportion of young passengers was shockingly high, and most of them were fit, able-bodied men.
He only saw three or four elderly people, one disabled person with a cane, while women and children… if you excluded their group of Wizards, were pitifully few.
—What's going on? Did the Muggles organize some large event that's only open to young and middle-aged men?
Michael's fingers twitched restlessly; he wanted to message Vid again. But when he glanced back at the passengers pressed tight behind him, he stopped.
Michael couldn't help turning around to look at the young man behind him, who appeared to be in his twenties with a gentle face.
"Excuse me, sorry to bother you."
Michael tried to make his tone sound like casual small talk. "It seems like there are a lot of young people on this flight. I'm a bit curious… is there some big event in the United Kingdom right now?"
"Hm?" The young man with dark brown curls said blankly, "It should be… the World War II commemoration?"
"So that's it…"
Michael smiled, but his doubts deepened.
The fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War was indeed a big day; there would be nationwide commemorative events in a few years… but for this kind of event, how could there be so few elderly people participating?
He put on a look of curiosity and asked, "Are you also going to the United Kingdom for that?"
"Haha, of course not." The young man laughed. "My wife's in the United Kingdom! And she's about to have a baby! I took special leave to go back—I'm hoping I can make it in time for the little one's birth!"
Michael hurriedly said, "Ah! Congratulations!"
"Thank you!"
The young man beamed, looking genuinely delighted.
Michael turned his head back, and the smile on his face faded away at once.
For the man behind him, taking this flight was probably pure coincidence and personal reasons, but as for the others… they couldn't all be coincidences, right?
He furrowed his brow tightly.
…
While the economy-class passengers were still boarding, Vid sat by the window, head lowered as he flipped through his Friendship Book.
Lupin smiled and asked softly, "Keeping in touch with your parents? Why not take the chance to enjoy the view outside?"
Like Hermione and Harry next to them—for all that this wasn't their first time on a plane, they were still visibly excited, squeezed up to the window, chattering away.
Vid smiled, turned a page of the Friendship Book, and said quietly, "The view I'm looking at isn't the same as an ordinary view."
As he spoke, he unfolded a blank piece of parchment, then tapped the portable Quill at the spine of the Friendship Book. The Quill instantly sprang up and darted quickly across the paper.
Lupin hurriedly glanced around. The other passengers were all sitting quietly in their seats—some reading, some chatting, some with eyes closed as if preparing to sleep. No one was paying attention to them.
He whispered, "Vid, even if the plane is about to take off, it's still best to…"
Lupin's voice cut off abruptly as the drawing gradually appearing on the parchment caught his eye.
In just a few seconds, the Quill had sketched a cross-section of the plane, and then with each stroke, it left a small circle of various colors on the paper:
Green, red, yellow, black…
Dots of all colors, spaced at regular intervals, were scattered across the "plane," clearly corresponding to the locations of all the passengers.
They were all "green."
So what the other three colors represented…
Following the markings on the parchment, Lupin let his gaze drift casually around them. His eyes paused on certain people, then he looked back at Vid in surprise.
The boy merely nodded, then asked with a smile, "Well, Remus? Isn't this kind of view more interesting than the scenery outside?"
Lupin was silent for a moment, then smiled. "It is…"
"What, did you two spot something interesting?"
A voice suddenly came from the front. Lupin's heart clenched; he instinctively went to draw his Magic Wand, then forced himself to stop.
He looked up to see Victor and Modis both leaning over the back of their seats.
Modis seemed to be reaching up to get something from the overhead compartment, while Victor, apparently drawn in by their conversation, had one hand on the seatback as he asked.
Lupin slowly released the handle of his Magic Wand and said gently, "Nothing… isn't the plane itself interesting enough?"
"Haha, that's true!"