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Having finally gotten a chance to control her daughter, Mrs. Granger naturally wanted to have some fun.

Although Zicomo didn't know what Mrs. Granger was thinking, he could tell from her malicious smile that Hermione was probably in trouble.

The exchange of mental energy is a rapid communication of thoughts, so although Zicomo and the Grangers talked for so long, only a few seconds actually passed in reality.

Hermione was completely unaware that the three of them had completed an exchange in just a few seconds.

“Ahem! Hermione, I think we need to talk,” Mrs. Granger said sternly.

Zicomo felt the little witch in his arms stiffen.

She stepped out of Zicomo's arms and turned to see her mother looking at her with a cold expression.

Mrs. Granger walked expressionlessly toward her room, gesturing with her chin to Hermione to follow.

Hermione looked at Zicomo with a pleading expression.

Zicomo knew that Mrs. Granger wanted to put her daughter in a difficult position, so he could only pretend not to see Hermione's pleading look.

However, he still used his mental power to say to Mrs. Granger, "Aunt, don't go too far."

Mrs. Granger rolled her eyes at Zicomo where Hermione couldn't see her. "So, you're starting to feel sorry for your little girlfriend now?"

Then she looked at Hermione and said, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and catch up!"

Seeing that Zicomo ignored her pleading look, Hermione could only lower her head guiltily and follow him.

Seeing this, Zicomo turned and went into the kitchen to start preparing dinner.

He knew that Hermione would definitely hold him accountable for turning a blind eye when she came out, so Zicomo decided to cook a meal of Hermione's favorite dishes to shut her up.

When Zicomo's food was almost ready, Hermione also came out of Mrs. Granger's room.

The little witch breathed a long sigh of relief. Although the whole process had been a little nerve-wracking, the outcome was good. Her mother had given her consent to her relationship with her cousin.

Hermione then lunged at Zicomo, who was still cooking in the kitchen, yelling, "You stinky cousin, you're teaming up with Mom to scare me about this!"

As she spoke, Hermione began to pound Zicomo's chest with her little fists, though she didn't use much force.

"I didn't conspire with your aunt to scare you. I just ignored your gaze."

Zicomo cried out that he was innocent, and that he didn’t even know what Mrs. Granger had done.

"Hmph! I don't care, you're just bad!" Hermione said coquettishly.

"Okay, okay, I'm bad." Zicomo sighed insincerely. "I even made some golden shrimp balls for a certain little glutton, and I didn't expect that she would think I'm a bad person. Sigh, I'm done with love."

Hermione turned to look at the pot and saw the shrimp balls being deep-fried. Some of the shrimp balls were already fried and were being drained of oil.

She glanced at the dishes that had already been prepared next to her; they were all her favorites.

The little witch immediately forgot her slight dissatisfaction and grumbled, "You're the glutton!"

After saying that, Hermione reached out and grabbed a fried shrimp ball, stuffing it whole into her mouth despite it being too hot.

Zicomo was amused by her actions. Who would believe she wasn't a little glutton?

He patted Hermione on the head and said, "Alright, take these dishes out first. We can eat when I've finished this one."

Hermione nodded obediently and carried the prepared dishes out.

When it was time to eat, Zicomo didn't forget to call Lani out of the "Zen Garden".

At the dinner table, Lani noticed a subtle shift in the relationship between Zicomo and Hermione. Don't underestimate a woman's sensitivity in this regard; it's an innate talent.

However, Lani didn't say anything; she had expected this situation.

She knew just how outstanding her king was. The fact that a naive young girl like Hermione could hold out for three years before completely succumbing was already beyond Lani's expectations.

But after hearing Hermione mention the events of the previous night, Lani's mood soured.

Lani was a little unhappy that Zicomo hadn't taken her along on his mission.

She stared at Zicomo with her beautiful eyes, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Zicomo naturally saw Lani's look and thought to himself with a wry smile, "It's not an easy thing to treat everyone equally."

So that very evening, Zicomo took Lani to Gringotts.

The main purpose of this mission is to take Ranie on a tour of Gringotts, to see the dragons guarding the Gringotts vault, and to take Hufflepuff's Cup along the way.

Lani actually had little interest in Gringotts' vaults or dragons.

Zicomo also built one in the "Zen Garden," where it stores a large quantity of Galleons produced from Marigolds. As for the dragons of the wizarding world, they're not much to look at; they're not even as beautiful as Ifrit.

However, Lani was still very satisfied with the operation.

All she wanted was Zicomo's attitude.

What Hermione has, she cannot lack; what Hermione doesn't have, she must have.

As a princess of the Kalia royal family, she has always been a strong person. Only when she is with Chicomo will she restrain her temper and show her considerate side.

Lani can't act cute like Hermione, but she'll express her dissatisfaction to Zicomo in her own way. And she'll be considerate enough not to make things difficult for Zicomo.

Just like at dinner earlier, although Lani was unhappy that Zicomo hadn't taken her with her on his trip to the Ministry of Magic, she didn't say anything that would embarrass Zicomo in front of everyone. Instead, she expressed her dissatisfaction with her eyes.

Chapter 172 "The Invisible Thief" Zicomo, and Lani finally gets her wish.

Lani knew that, given her and Zicomo's understanding, he would definitely be able to read her eyes and understand what she wanted to express.

Zicomo could certainly understand it, which led to the Gringotts operation that night.

Zicomo didn't bring Hermione with him on this mission; it was a date just for him and Lani.

And during the date, Zicomo also casually took Hufflepuff's golden cup. Poor Voldemort, another Horcrux is about to be removed.

(Voldemort: Are you being polite?)

Lani was quite satisfied with her trip to Gringotts, and any lingering dissatisfaction she had felt had completely vanished. Surprisingly, she even took the initiative to give Zicomo a kiss.

…………

The next day, the Daily Prophet reported another big news—Gringotts had been robbed.

Logically speaking, Gringotts shouldn't have discovered the theft so quickly, since Zicomo had carefully erased all traces he and Lani left behind before leaving.

However, Zicomo's sleeping spell was too strong, and the dragon guarding the vault remained unconscious, which is why the goblins of Gringotts noticed the anomaly.

So the news of Gringotts being robbed spread to every household in the wizarding world that very day through the Daily Prophet.

When the wizards saw this, they realized that it was one thing for the Ministry of Magic to be robbed yesterday, but how could Gringotts also be robbed? This was unacceptable.

They keep all their money in Gringotts!

Some wizards who already distrusted goblins withdrew their savings from Gringotts, causing Gringotts' reputation to plummet.

Because this theft was similar to the theft at the Ministry of Magic, with no trace left by the thieves, it was determined to be the work of the same person or group.

In response, Gringotts applied to the Ministry of Magic to increase the bounty on the thief, with Gringotts providing the additional reward.

However, the fairies only offered an additional 5000 Galleons, proving their stinginess. (683)

The series of thefts has had a certain impact on the wizarding world. Wizarding families with some wealth are very fearful, worried that their own homes will be the next to be robbed.

Some busybodies even gave the thief the nickname "invisible phantom thief".

Zicomo, who lives in Muggle society and stays at home every day, naturally knew nothing about these things.

Even if he knew, Zicomo wouldn't pay much attention. He wasn't a real phantom thief; why would he go and steal things from those wizarding families?

…………

The Zicomo family enjoyed a peaceful holiday for the next few days.

Hermione spends her days reading, enriching her knowledge. Occasionally, she studies the time-twisters that Zicomo brought back from the Ministry of Magic that have lost their effectiveness.

Lani was also very interested in the time-tamper, but she was interested in the origin of the time-tamper.

It's important to know that even the goddess Marika in the borderlands couldn't control the power of time, while the wizards of this world, possessing a bit of magical power, were able to create devices that could travel back in time.

Lani flipped through Zikomo's collection of books and, to her surprise, actually found some relevant information.

These materials come from rare books that Zicomo obtained from the Malfoy family.

While the origins of the Time-Turner are not recorded above, it does document the research conducted on it by a generation of the Malfoy family's ancestors. The Nott family, also one of the Twenty-Eight Holy Families, also participated in this research.

Incidentally, the current head of the Nott family is Old Nott, who is from Malfoy's grandfather's generation.

However, old Nott had a son late in life; his son was the same age as Draco and also attended Hogwarts. Young Nott's name was Theodore.

Lani was greatly disappointed to find that the information did not mention the origin of the Time-Turner. She tossed the information to Hermione and went to find Zicomo to experience the wonders of the time-turner's power.

Zicomo is currently familiarizing himself with his newly acquired power over time; he can already perform simple time acceleration and time reversal. As for more advanced applications, Zicomo is still exploring them.

As soon as Lani arrived, she saw Zicomo casting a time-reversal spell on the apple core in front of him. Green fluorescence flowed across the surface of the apple core, and pieces of the bitten-off fruit reappeared on the core, which soon turned into a whole apple again.

Upon seeing Lani approach, Zicomo said, "It's amazing. I can feel the original fruit pulp still inside my stomach. So where did this restored fruit pulp come from?"

Lani was speechless. She realized that Zicomo was sometimes quite boring, instead of exploring the applications of time power, he was agonizing over this kind of problem.

She casually remarked, "Who knows? Maybe it's a parallel universe, or perhaps a branch of time?"

Zicomo nodded with some surprise; it was indeed a possibility.

He always felt something was off when Lani used those terms.