London Heathrow Airport.

  “Take good care of yourself in China. Their magical community is very different from Europe, much stricter in how they operate,” Diana said, adjusting Anne’s colr one st time.

  Anne let her fuss over her and nodded seriously. “I will.”

  “There’s a phone at home. Remember to call us as soon as you nd,” Aaron said, holding Anne’s small suitcase.

  “Of course, I promise.” Anne beamed. “Uncle Aaron, I already told Obi to remind you to eat properly. Don’t forget your meals just because you’re busy!” She fshed him a bright smile. “I’ll call to supervise you myself.”

  “Haha, ” Aaron chuckled and ruffled Anne’s hair fondly.

  Anne walked up to Hermione without saying a word and pulled her into a tight hug. Hermione embraced her just as firmly.

  With her head resting on Hermione’s shoulder, Anne whispered in her ear, “Hmph. I’m regretting it now… I never should’ve agreed to this trip. If I hadn’t, I could be kissing you right now.”

  Hermione blushed. With a soft smile, she patted Anne on the back and quickly pced a kiss on Anne’s cheek, so fast and at such an angle that neither adult noticed.

  Satisfied, Anne stepped back, eyes crinkling with a grin. “I’ll remember to call you.”

  Hermione nodded. “See you in a month.”

  Fanny gave Anne a quick hug too and ughed. “Bring me back a souvenir!”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you something completely unique,” Anne said with a wink.

  The final boarding call came over the loudspeakers. Anne took her suitcase from Aaron, gave everyone a st wave, and followed Margaret Li (Li Qing), the Rond family’s Asia trade line manager based in China, through the gate.

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  First Stop: Hong KongAfter nearly 12 hours of flight, their pne touched down at Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. The seven-hour time difference meant that although they left London at 8 a.m., it was already 3 a.m. local time when they nded.

  The Rond family’s China headquarters was located in a small four-story Western-style building in Kowloon. The top floor had been renovated into a living space, three bedrooms, two living rooms, and a rge kitchen. The second floor served as a conference area and office space, while the third was for archives and a temporary warehouse.

  The ground floor housed the reception area, and there was even a basement stocked with rare and valuable goods.

  Once they reached the top floor, Li Qing bid Anne goodnight and went to rest. During the flight, they had thoroughly discussed the 15-day schedule and the tasks Anne would be handling.

  After pcing her suitcase by the door, Anne picked up the ndline in the living room and dialed home. She gave a quick update, chatted briefly with Aaron, then hung up and dialed a second number, one she knew by heart.

  The phone barely rang once before it was answered.

  “Anne?” Hermione’s voice came through.

  Anne couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. Her mood instantly lifted.

  “Hehe, yup, it’s me,” she said, “I just got to Hong Kong. I’m at the Rond family’s headquarters now.”

  With a flick, she drew open the curtains. Neon signs and streetmps lit up the quiet streets outside. There wasn’t a soul in sight.

  “How is it there? Different from London?” Hermione asked.

  “Hmm…” Anne paced to the window, cordless phone in hand. “The lights at night are about the same as London, but all the signs are in Chinese. It’s way hotter here. I almost cast a Cooling Charm the moment we nded, thank goodness for air conditioning. As for everything else…”

  She chuckled. “I think it would be perfect if one little thing were added.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You.”

  “Anne…”

  Anne could picture Hermione’s flushed face on the other end. “Hey, I’m just being honest. But don’t worry, we’ll get that chance someday.”

  “Alright,” Hermione replied warmly. “Do you start helping out tomorrow?”

  “Ahem, helping? Excuse me, this is actual work. Your girlfriend here is bringing in serious value, you know.”

  Hermione ughed softly. “Okay, okay. Work. So what’s on the agenda tomorrow?”

  “Let me see…” Anne tapped her chin. “Very important tasks, obviously. Things like reviewing data, prepping for meetings, sorting records…”

  She switched the phone from one hand to the other, stood by the window, sat on the sofa, and eventually made her way to the kitchen to fry an egg. The clock on the wall slowly ticked toward 4:30 a.m. before the two finally said goodnight and hung up.

  Afterward, Anne gnced at the call duration and blinked in surprise. She hadn’t realized how quickly time had flown.

  “Hmm, maybe I should chip in for Hermione’s phone bill,” she muttered, then rushed through her bedtime routine and set her arm before colpsing into bed.

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  Next MorningThree arms went off at once.

  With eyes still shut, Anne stuck an arm out of her bnket and groggily turned one off. The other two bred on relentlessly. She fumbled for her wand and silenced the second, but the third kept going.

  She gave up, rolled into her bnket like a burrito, and ignored it, until a new arm rang out… from under the bed.

  “Oh come on!” Anne groaned, flinging off the covers and sitting up, her hair a mess.

  “Alright, alright… let’s do this.” She gave herself a pep talk, got out of bed, found the hidden arm clocks, and turned them all off.

  On her way to the bathroom, she casually shut off another one.

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  Business in ChinaAnne stood in a conference room, pointing at a massive data chart on parchment.

  “These were the key growth points st quarter,” she expined, “but I think there’s still untapped potential here. The Chen, Li, and Huang families, there’s more to draw from those partnerships. Plus, China’s going to open up even more in the next couple of years…”

  Every day, Anne followed Li Qing to meetings, acting as her assistant while visiting allied families. She devoured reports on China’s magical world, learning about the major cns and schools of magic.

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  One night, on the phone with Hermione:

  “Guess what? I went to Beijing’s Shifang Street yesterday. It’s basically their version of Diagon Alley. I saw a tiny purple monkey! It was a wizard’s pet. I wanted to bring one back for you, but apparently magical creatures like that are banned from export…”

  “Remember the Biting Cabbage we read about in the library once? The Chen family actually turned it into a full-scale magical crop!”

  “I’ve taken a bunch of magical photos. I asked Momo to send them to you. Not sure how long it’ll take her to fly there though… But hey, pets who love snacks are totally normal, right?”

  “Maybe I should try an owl post next time. Pigeons are still used a lot on the mainnd. Slightly faster than Momo too, shh, don’t tell her I said that. Oh! And technically, according to the International Wizarding Trade Law, Chinese pigeons aren’t cssified as global magical couriers… There might be a loophole there. Might be worth something…”

  “And hey, I heard about the Dementor attack near your neighborhood. Please don’t go out unless you absolutely have to. The Aurors responded quickly, but apparently a wizard went missing in southwest London. The Ministry’s scrambling to contain things. If you’ve run out of books, I’ll have Momo send you ten more. Just… promise me you’ll stay safe.”

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  Onward to IndiaJust three days into Anne’s stay in India, things in London’s magical world had taken another dark turn.

  Voldemort hadn’t yet openly challenged the Ministry, but his attacks, especially on Muggles, were growing more frequent. His power was building.

  “You’re going to the Burrow for the st ten days of break?” Anne asked one evening on the phone.

  Her first reaction was relief, she knew the Burrow had become one of the safest pces thanks to Harry. The Ministry had gone to great lengths to secure it.

  But still… ten days without calling Hermione, no firepce connections, only owls? That stung. It took several reassurances from Hermione about how much she’d miss her before Anne finally accepted it.

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  The Rond family’s operations in India were vast, based in New Delhi, with over 30 witches and wizards on staff. That was three times as many as in Hong Kong.

  Over a century of trade had made India a stronghold of profit. But Anne quickly realized something was off.

  Trade from India accounted for over 80% of the family’s Far East revenue, but… Diana wasn’t a born businesswoman. She was far better suited to politics. Her leadership style was more conservative, and with the family’s dwindling numbers, she couldn’t be everywhere at once.

  Anne had her doubts about Garava Singh, the India trade manager.

  He took Anne on a “tour” of the Indian states for two whole days before finally handing over a single cleaned-up ledger when she asked for the past decade’s trade records.

  Anne stayed up all night reading that ledger and, thanks to her sharp memory, ran some rough estimates.

  She was shocked.

  India had at least 600,000 Galleons worth of discrepancies.

  “Great. A crisis abroad to match the one back home,” she muttered. “Seems like wherever there’s profit, there’s politics.”

  For the next ten days, Anne cut her sleep down to four hours a night. The rest of her time was spent attending meetings, cross-checking vault records at Gringotts New Delhi, and inspecting the Rond warehouse to verify shipment volumes.

  When the full data finally came together, Anne was stunned again.

  Just st year alone, nearly half of the 1.8 million Galleon revenue had been skimmed off.

  Holding the documents in disbelief, Anne sat frozen for a while.

  This wasn’t negligence, this was a deliberate power grab. If Diana followed through with her pn to move the family base to India… it would be a disaster.

  Should she tell Diana?

  Right now? At this moment?

  Being betrayed by someone you trust, Anne shivered violently just thinking about it.

  It reminded her of that night, cold, like a bucket of ice dumped on her head.

  Gripping the parchment tightly, Anne took a deep breath.

  Then she drew her wand and summoned all the records into the firepce.

  “Incendio.”

  Orange fmes crackled, consuming the evidence.

  Anne colpsed into an armchair and watched the pages burn to ash.

  “Well then… another mess added to the pile,” she muttered, rubbing her temples. “Time to start thinking…”

  But for now, Anne gnced at her watch. Sleep came first.

  Tomorrow was August 31st.

  Time to go home.

  Luckily, no more long flights, she’d use a Portkey this time.

  India had better magical infrastructure than Hong Kong, thanks to a century of investment. But that’s also why Diana had been so x with oversight here. She simply had too much on her pte with the Ministry.

  It was a textbook case of darkness under the mp.

  Lying in bed, that was Anne’s st thought before she drifted off into a deep sleep.

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  The complete release can be accessed through .com/Crimson_Lore