As the flowers bloomed in pairs, each representing a branch.
While Lynn was selecting alchemy ingredients, Irina had already quickly chosen the snacks she wanted and went to the counter at Honeydukes to pay.
There was no choice, Irina's funds were limited, not allowing her to select too many delicacies.
After paying and leaving Honeydukes, Irina happily hummed a tune, skipping and jumping towards the agreed meeting place.
However, on her way back, Qinwee crawled out from her backpack and forcefully tugged at Irina's sleeve.
"What's wrong, Qinwee?"
Irina looked puzzled at Qinwee standing on her shoulder.
Qinwee looked very anxious, pointing at Irina's pocket, then gesturing behind Irina.
Irina's pocket had somehow been turned out, and behind her was a frantically escaping Niffler, carrying a small burlap sack in its mouth.
"Oh no! My Sickles!"
Irina panicked, as that burlap sack contained the sixteen Sickles she had received as change when paying.
Thinking of how much chocolate she could buy with sixteen Sickles, Irina immediately chased after the Niffler that stole her money. However, while chasing, she didn't forget to use her wand to leave an ice mark in that spot, so Lynn wouldn't worry about not finding her.
But Irina was ultimately just a second-year girl, her stamina no match for an adult wizard. Plus, that Niffler could run much faster on its four legs than her, even if Irina cast a Speed Charm on herself.
Just as Irina thought she couldn't catch up to the Niffler, it unexpectedly turned down a dead-end alley after rounding a corner.
Irina's heart leapt as she quickly followed. However, the sounds coming from the dead-end made her stop in her tracks.
Irina carefully peeked around the corner. Inside the alley, she saw four hooded wizards sitting there. To her surprise, the Niffler approached them and voluntarily dropped the burlap sack of money.
"Big bro, you were really right before, training a Niffler to actually bring us a constant stream of wealth!"
"Yeah, in the past when we tried making money in Knockturn Alley, we had to worry about being caught by Aurors. But now, no Auror would bother catching a Niffler, right?!"
"Aurors have no jurisdiction over Nifflers, that's the Beast Division's business!"
"Don't be ridiculous, number three. Like those drunken slobs in the Beast Division would have time for us?"
Listening to the four wizards' conversation, Irina felt a sense of dread.
It was clear these four were dark wizards from Knockturn Alley, and that Niffler was one they had trained to steal money for them in Hogsmeade village.
A treasure-hunting Niffler?!
Irina could hardly believe it. She knew many wizards chose to keep a Niffler as a pet, like Newt Scamander had one as a companion. But she never imagined someone would use such underhanded means, making a Niffler into a thieving tool.
Damn, this...was really quite professional!
However, setting aside whether these four dark wizards' actions were right or wrong, they did make a fair point!
The drunken slobs at the Beast Division were absolutely useless!
"But no matter what, that's no reason for you to steal my money!"
Thinking about the Sickles she had painstakingly saved being stolen by the treasure-hunting Niffler made Irina angry. She immediately stepped out and fired a non-verbal Freezing Charm at one of the dark wizards.
Before acting, Irina had assessed their relative combat strength. Seeing that she could use non-verbal and wandless magic while they seemed to be just ordinary dark wizards, Irina felt she had the advantage.
The four dark wizards never expected Irina's presence. Her sudden non-verbal Freezing Charm struck one of them, freezing him into an ice sculpture.
"Damn, we've been discovered! Number four is hit!"
"What's there to be afraid of? It's just a little witch, looks like she snuck out from Hogwarts Castle!"
The remaining three dark wizards immediately counterattacked Irina with dark magic. To be able to operate freely in Knockturn Alley, these dark wizards were no pushovers, rapidly firing curses at Irina.
Irina struggled to dodge the three dark wizards' spells, regretting not asking Lynn to teach her the Shield Charm the previous night. If she knew that, she could have easily tanked their attacks and subdued them one by one.
"Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Diffindo!"
Irina swished her wand, using the techniques Lynn had taught her to rapidly fire three spells at the three dark wizards.
Meanwhile, Qinwee took the opportunity while the dark wizards were distracted to quietly jump down from Irina's shoulder and sneak around behind them.
"This is just a second or third year little witch?!"
Seeing Irina's advanced spellcasting, the dark wizard called Number Three stared in disbelief.
As Irina's Stunning Spell was about to hit Number Three, the lead dark wizard quickly cast a Shield Charm, blocking all of Irina's spells.
Irina's face fell when she saw this.
This feeling of the enemy knowing the Shield Charm while she didn't was really unpleasant!
With no choice, Irina had to alternate, her left hand firing non-verbal and wandless Freezing Charms while her wand in the right hand cast non-verbal Freezing Charms.
Outnumbered, only her specialty Freezing Charms could give Irina a greater chance of victory.
Irina's new wand was made of ice crystal wood with a dragon heartstring core, giving it extremely high ice affinity and immense magical power. Combined with Irina's own ice affinity, the Freezing Charms from her wand had exponentially increased power.
Over ten successive Freezing Charms battered the lead dark wizard's Shield Charm until finally shattering it, while the remaining charms froze the dark wizard called Number Three into an ice sculpture.
At the same time, Qinwee had circled behind the remaining two dark wizards. She jumped onto Number Two's body, her branch-like tough hands clamping firmly between his legs.
"Arggghhhh!"
That dark wizard immediately screamed in pain, his right hand going limp as his wand dropped to the ground.
For a wizard to lose their wand in combat was a huge taboo. Seizing the moment his wand fell, Irina fired a Severing Charm that sliced off his right arm!
(end of chapter)
[dont worry the story is slightly changing from the plot, but one biggest stupid irina moment is coming which will almost cost both the protagonist to die be prepared! After that she will mature and both mc and fmc will have great power up]