Chapter Thirty Eight:

Something that Enuma was initially worried about was the fact that the Twins hadn't been students at Hogwarts last year, but the surprising reveal that the Dark Elves were not only (for some reason) already registered amongst the students and sorted into their respective Houses, Gryffindoor in the case of Aura and Ravenclaw in the case of Mare, dispelled some of the worry. Only for the worry to be replaced with what might be something akin to justified paranoia. Who had registered the Twins as students of Hogwarts (more specifically as students in the same year as Enuma, albeit in the Houses that fit their personalities) and why? While she had her suspicions, namely the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, she knew better than making a fuss about it. Especially since doing so would most likely put the Gremorys' informant in the Wizarding World at risk considering how demonized Devils and (ironically) Angels (both Normal and Fallen) were in some parts of the Wizarding World, a piece of information Enuma discovered while doing some light reading to alleviate boredom last year.

Though, based on the pictures in the book she found them in, the few Devils that had been recorded by the Wizarding World apparently to only have been Stray Devils, Reincarnated Devils who didn't have a King, whose role was, in addition to being the leader of the Peerage, keeping the Demonic Power of the Reincarnated Devil stable through the bond between the King Piece and whichever Evil Piece was inside the Reincarnated Devil. Without the King to keep not only the power but also the individual stable and in check, the Demonic Power would inevitably not only drive the Reincarnated Devil insane but also twist and mutate their bodies, the uncontrolled power, insanity and mutation often turning the (relatively) weak-willed into monsters more often than not beyond saving. While she hadn't done any actual hunts of her own with her Peerage, mainly due to the fact that it had just been Enuma and Shalltear and that she didn't have a territory of her own, Enuma had occasionally accompanied Rias on her Stray Devil-hunts.

Speaking of Stray Devils, the only member of Enuma's Peerage who made a fuss about them when Shalltear and Enuma gave the others the mandatory lesson on the subject, which they did on the train ride to Hogwarts, was Hermione. The Twins on the other hand simply accepted the content of the lesson as simply a part of their lives as Devils. While the Red Duchess was busy explaining the various reasons why Stray Devil-hunts were necessary, the Bloody Valkyrie made the half-joking-half-serious comment that the odds of Stray Devils showing up in, in the words of the Vampire, a backwards backwater location like where Hogwarts was situated were 3,720 to one… or something.

"That's an oddly specific number." Commented Mare, which earned the Nature Mage a snot of amusement from Shalltear.

"I basically borrowed the number from a movie I saw… at the premiere. Though the one who said it in the movie was pretty much immediately told to shut up by the other characters right afterward." Replied Shalltear with a somewhat thoughtful look on her face before shrugging. "Whatever. This year oughta be interesting. Especially with the presence of what is definitely another Phantom-Ship and what I think might be a Lycan. Not really sure about the latter though since it was a couple of decades ago since the last time I ran into a Lycan, so I could be wrong but I doubt that's the case."

"How can you tell there's another Phantom-Ship on the train besides Hermione and what's a Lycan?"

"For the first one, all Phantom-Ships smell like saltwater, even if they try to cover up the smell, and a Lycan is basically a kind of Werewolf. I can explain in more detail later"